SC puts election delay speculations to rest, says no one can exercise ECP powers
Pakistan
Observes no challenges possible as election schedule has been announced
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News/Web Desk) – In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court nullified the orders passed about the delimitations of two Balochistan Assembly constituencies and observed that no such challenge could be entertained after the ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan) issued the schedule for Feb 8 countrywide polling.
The ruling was passed by a three-member bench headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, which also comprised Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Athar Minallah, meaning that the country’s top court has closed all the doors to orchestrate a delay in the much-awaited general elections.
In recent weeks, there have been rumours and speculations in media and political circles about delay in elections, creating confusion and uncertainty in a country already passing through a worst economic crisis in its history. However, Monday’s ruling has killed the hopes of those elements who were behind all this propaganda.
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It was the ECP which had moved the Supreme Court against the Balochistan High Court (BHC) judgement that changed the delimitations of two provincial constituencies – one in Sherani district and the other in Zhob.
Justice Masood – the senior-most Supreme Court judge who is currently serving as acting chief justice – remarked he was unable to understand why everyone wanted to postpone polls. Let the elections happen, he stressed.
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How a high court could exercise the powers granted to the ECP through the Constitution, Justice Minallah questioned and remarked that “everything [objections etc] stops once the election schedule is announced”.
Applications would flood the Supreme Court if [the ECP powers were curbed] by rejecting the appeal, he said and noted that holding free and fair polls was a test for the country’s top electoral body.
Similarly, Justice Shah remarked that the entire election process could not be hampered to provide relief to a single individual. “We have to draw a line in in this connection,” he observed.
The latest Supreme Court orders have thus become the second intervention within days to stop the high courts from interfering in the domain of ECP – a constitutional body itself – to make it more powerful and immune from outside influence.
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Previously, it had nullified the ruling passed by Justice Ali Baqir Najafi of Lahore High Court (LHC), who stayed the appointment of bureaucrats as election officials [district returning officers and others] on a petition filed by the PTI.
Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had also written in the orders that the LHC judge had interfered in the Supreme Court jurisdiction and the plaintiff committed contempt of court – a development that also included prompt issuance of election schedule.
