Maryam questions the Supreme Court as to why the original judgment of 4-3 was modified to 3-2. A PML-N leader believes that no election verdict will be recognized until the ambiguity surrounding the Supreme Court poll verdict is resolved.
Maryam Nawaz, senior vice president of the PML-N, questioned on Tuesday why the Supreme Court’s “4-3 ruling was amended to 3-2” in a suo motu case involving the elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The head of the ruling party reportedly made reference to the Supreme Court’s hearing of a PTI appeal challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to push out Punjab elections to October 8 in a tweet from her official account.
“Before making a decision about the election, it must be determined why the original 4/3 [verdict] was amended to 3/2? Who was involved, and what were the reasons? “, asked the PML-N leader.
Her comments come a day after two Supreme Court justices, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, released a 27-page order in which they stated that a majority of four judges out of seven had decided to dismiss the suo motu case concerning the announcement of the dates for the elections in Punjab and K-P.
The two justices sought to “strengthen” the institution and “guarantee public faith and confidence” in the supreme court by “revisiting the authority of the one-man show possessed by the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.”
Maryam also stated that no judgment by the apex court would be accepted forcefully until resolving the ambiguity surrounding the top court’s March 1 judgement on the Punjab and K-P polls, in reference to the dissenting letter of the apex court judges.
Maryam praised the decision of two justices of the Supreme Court on Monday, claiming it was a “win” for the PML-claim N’s that “bench manipulation” had taken place. The judges had questioned the top judge of the nation’s unrestricted jurisdiction to choose benches among other things.
The Sharif family scion was making reference to Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Jamal Khan Mandokhail’s order, in which they not only voiced concerns about the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) unrestricted powers upon taking suo moto notice, but also stated that creating benches by the CJP alone to hear cases was nothing more than a “one-man show.”
The PML-N leader said, “If the bench-making is not fair, how can the result be deemed fair?” while presiding over a meeting of party spokespersons, adding that “Judge Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Mandokhail’s ruling today is a triumph for our narrative regarding bench rigging.”
