Election suo motu: Law minister asserts SC rejected pleas with 4-3 majority

While commenting on the Supreme Court verdict in its election date suo motu case, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar said he believed that the petitions had been rejected by a 4-3 majority.

The federal minister said this while speaking to Geo News regarding the apex court's verdict that has directed the president and the concerned governor to fix suitable dates for the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respectively.

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, ruled that elections should be held within 90 days. However, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Mandokhail jointly dissented with the majority verdict, saying "the suo motu proceedings do not constitute a fit case to exercise the extraordinary original jurisdiction of this court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution and are thus not maintainable as the same constitutional and legal issues seeking the same relief are pending and being deliberated upon by the respective provincial high courts in Lahore and Peshawar, without there being any inordinate delay in the conduct of the proceedings before them”.

“The Election Commission is therefore directed to use its utmost efforts to immediately propose, keeping in mind ss. 57 and 58 of the 2017 Act, a date to the president that is compliant with the aforesaid deadline. If such a course is not available, then the Election Commission shall in like manner propose a date for the holding of the poll that deviates to the barest minimum from the aforesaid deadline. After consultation with the Election Commission, the president shall announce a date for the holding of the general election to the Punjab Assembly,” read the 13-page SC order.

“The governor of the KPK province must after consultation with the Election Commission forthwith appoint a date for the holding of the general election to the KPK Assembly and the preceding clause (a) shall, mutatis mutandis, apply in relation thereto.”

Speaking on Geo News today, Azam Nazeer Tarar said he could not comment on the verdict as law minister since he had not received the copy and discussed the same with the federal cabinet.

“However, as a lawyer, I am of the view that these petitions have been dismissed with a 4-3 majority, as on February 23 when the case was first heard and Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Yahya Afridi had clearly stated that these are not maintainable.”

The minister maintained that the suo motu notice taken under Article 184(3) doesn’t qualify as this matter was already pending before the high court in KP and Punjab.

“Today, two more judges said that the petitions were not maintainable, so in my opinion, it’s a 4-3 verdict.”

He referred to the SC verdict in the Panama case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif when a split verdict of a five-member bench was later merged as a 5-0 verdict.

This issue, Tarar said, should now be adjudicated in respective high courts.