SC judge says keeping PTI out of elections was not apex court's intention

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa on Thursday said when the Supreme Court (SC) had ordered that the date be given for the general elections, then why the then president Arif Alvi did not comply with the court order, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

He made these remarks during the hearing of the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) reserved seats case.

A 13-member full-court bench of the apex court, headed by CJP Isa, heard the SIC’s appeal against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdicts in  the case.

Justice Muneeb Akhtar remarked that the SC’s intention was not to keep the PTI out of the elections.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that the court was not bound to agree with the PHC’s decision. “The question is how could the ECP disenfranchise a political party?”

In order to ascertain the reasons for the election commission’s decision, the SC sought the case record.     

Justice Jamal Mandokhel asked whether the ECP had the power to declare a candidate ‘independent’.

Justice Muneeb said the commission declared the candidates fielded by the country’s largest political party ‘independent’.

Justice Athar Minallah said that if there were question marks over the fairness of elections, then it was the ECP’s job to address these concerns.

Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, on the other hand, was of the view that the PTI candidates did not follow the procedure while filing their nomination papers.

Iskandar Bashir, counsel for the ECP, told the court that Hamid Raza, in his nomination papers, had said that he belonged to both the SIC and the PTI. “Later he said he was a member of PTI Nazriati (PTI-N),” the lawyer said, adding, “The fact is that PTI-Nazriati has nothing to do with the PTI.”

Later, Bashir went on to say, Raza contested the election as an independent candidate and was given the symbol of ‘tower’ for that. “How can he now say that he did not contest the election as an ‘independent’,” he questioned.  

Justice Jamal Mandokhel remarked that nowhere in Urdu documents, Raza stated that he was contesting the poll as an independent candidate.

Later the court adjourned the case’s hearing until Monday.

Reporter: Amanat Gishkori