ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court denied the electoral Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) request for a stay order in the electoral tribunals case on Thursday, prompting Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa to refer to the presidential ordinance as an insult to the parliament.
The top judge stated, “[Presidential] ordinance is an insult to the parliament when it has already made a law [on an issue],” in response to ECP’s appeal against the Lahore High Court (LHC)’s creation of electoral tribunals.
The matter has been referred to the three-member SC committee for the formation of a larger bench after it was heard by a two-member bench made up of the CJP and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
The ECP had appealed the May 29 ruling of the LHC, which established eight election tribunals, to the supreme court under Article 185(3) of the Constitution.
The election petitions would be heard at the LHC primary seat in Lahore by Justice Shahid Karim, Justice Ch Muhammad Iqbal, Justice Anwaar Hussain, and Justice Sultan Tanvir Ahmad, according to the order of the court’s one-member bench, which included LHC CJ Malik Shahzad Ahmad.
The LHC Bahawalpur bench will hear election petitions from Justice Asim Hafeez, the LHC Multan bench will hear them from Justices Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Raheel Kamran, and the LHC Rawalpindi bench will hear them from Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf.
