CJP Isa wonders what ECP should do, hear cases or hold elections!

During the hearing of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf petition seeking a level playing field in elections, the Chief Justice of Pakistan remarked what did the PTI want, did it want 100% of its nomination papers to be approved, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali on Monday heard the PTI petition regarding its complaint of not getting a level playing field in the election.

The Supreme Court sought a written response from the PTI on the reports of the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Punjab Chief Secretary and adjourned the hearing till next Monday.

The court also directed that the ECP and the Punjab CS could submit their reply if they wanted.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Isa asked PTI's lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa if he had read the ECP report which was submitted yesterday. He asked the lawyer if there was anything wrong in the report, he should mention it.

Lawyer Khosa said that there was no mention of the reservations of the Punjab Election Commissioner in the report, on which the Chief Justice said ‘Khosa Sahib, you cannot stand here and reject the report of the Election Commission’.

Khosa said to the Chief Justice that he wanted to draw his attention to his own order, to which the Chief Justice said, ‘We know our order, why are you drawing attention?’

Justice Mian Muhammad Ali Mazhar said that according to the ECP report, 1,195 PTI people submitted their papers and the nomination papers of 76% of the PTI people were approved. According to the report, the papers of most of the people of Tehreek-e-Insaf have been approved, he added.

Latif Khosa said that the nomination papers of PTI's frontline candidates were not accepted, on which Justice Mazhar said that he himself said in his answer that the tribunals gave them relief.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan said, "Does PTI want 100% of the nomination papers to be approved? Tell us what you want, this is a court of law, it cannot be governed by oral speech.”

The Chief Justice wondered if the PTI wanted elections, to which Khosa replied that 100% elections should be held. The Chief Justice said, “The Election Commission's job is to conduct elections, these are the institutions created by you. Parliament has created these institutions, respect these institutions. If the facts submitted by the institution (ECP) are false, deny them.”

CJP Isa continued, “If the institution denies your allegations, then you say it is not true.” To which, Khosa complained that action was being taken against the PTI people by imposing Section 144. The Chief Justice remarked: “We are not the government but the Supreme Court. We are not running anyone's campaign, Section 144 and MPO will be for everyone, not only for PTI, neither Section 144 nor MPO has been challenged before us.”

The PTI lawyer said that no other political party wanted to go to the public, on which the Chief Justice said ‘If you don't trust any institution of Pakistan then what should we do, this is not a political forum. Don't utter your grievances in front of the court, there are many political forums, use them’.

CJP Isa observed that most requests were coming from the PTI and they were being heard. “What the Election Commission should do? Should it attend cases or hold elections,” the top judge remarked.

Chief Justice Isa expressed his annoyance over Khosa for chipping in again and again, saying: "You are not allowing us to ask questions, you are preventing us from asking, it’s better if you write the court order yourself."

After that, the Supreme Court adjourned the case till January 15.

The court also adjourned the hearing of the case related to giving the poll symbol ‘bat’ to the PTI till January 10.

It bears mentioning that the Election Commission submitted its reply in the case to the Supreme Court yesterday rejecting the allegations of the Tehreek-e-Insaf that it was not getting a level playing field.

In its response, the Election Commission requested the court to dismiss the PTI application with a fine for misrepresentation.

Reporter Amanat Gishkori