In the case of the election delay, coalition parties want two SC judges to recuse themselves.
The hearing is postponed until February 27 after CJP informs PPP’s attorney that the court will first evaluate the admissibility of the matter.
ISLAMABAD: Coalition parties demanded on Friday that Judge Ijaz ul Ahsan and Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi of the Supreme Court recuse themselves from the suo motu issue involving the delay in the declaration of a date for elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
The case, in which the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) submitted a petition asking the two SC judges to disqualify themselves from the bench, was being heard by a nine-member panel.
PPP attorney Farooq H. Naek read a joint statement that asked Justices Ahsan and Naqvi to step aside from hearing the case as the hearings got underway today.
In the statement, it was requested that both the apex court’s judges “recuse themselves from hearing any matter involving PML-N, PPP and JUI-F and their leadership” for the “interest of justice, fair play and to protect the fundamental right to a fair trial and due process”.
Naek also noted that he had not yet received a copy of the court order and requested that notices be issued to all concerned parties.
The chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) remarked that today “we will mark everyone here present and hear arguments on Monday,” noting that the representatives of all four provinces were present in the courtroom.
The PPP lawyer further objected to the inclusion of Justice Ahsan and Justice Naqvi in the bench and referred to Justice Jamal Mandokhail’s statement made in the previous hearing objecting to the suo moto notice.
However, Justice Athar Minallah said that the matter pertained to Article 184(3) of the constitution and questioned why it should not be heard in a full court.
Advocate Naek replied that he did not want to go into the details but maintained that he believed that the case should be heard by a full-court bench.
CJP Umar Atta Bandial remarked that “we will discuss the admissibility of the case first”. To this, the PPP’s counsel said that admissibility is the most important issue, as is the matter of composition and seeing how the bench was constituted.
During the hearing, Awami Muslim League (AML)’s counsel Azhar Siddique questioned why political leaders are being allowed to defame the judiciary and said that this is a “serious issue”.
In his remarks, Justice Jamal Mandokhail said that political matters should be settled in the parliament, questioning why they do not resolve the issue of interpretation of the constitution in the parliament.
Justice Bandial said that in normal circumstances, citizens knocked on the door of the court “but today, the Constitution of Pakistan has knocked on our doorstep.”
Subsequently, the court adjourned the hearing till Monday, February 27.
