Top court rejects government’s plea to form full bench on Punjab CM poll

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

The Pakistan Supreme Court on Monday rejected the coalition government’s request to form a full bench on the deputy speaker’s ruling pertaining to the contentious Punjab Chief Minister election, media reports said.

The three-judge bench hearing the petition had earlier observed that it needed more clarity to decide on whether to form a full court bench on the matter, Express Tribune reported.

“We need more clarity on certain things to decide on the formation of a full court,” said Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, as the apex court resumed hearing on the case after a brief interval.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan, who is part of a three-member bench, remarked that the apex court wanted to hear the matter of the deputy speaker’s controversial ruling on merit before deciding about forming a full bench.

The chief justice maintained that a full bench had been formed in the past in the matter of utmost importance and added that it could be formed if the issue lingered on.

“We believe that the full court is only constituted when the matter is complicated,” the chief justice remarked, Express Tribune reported.

Chief Justice Bandial said the main point of contention before the bench was that whether a party head could issue directions to his parliamentary party members.

PML-N’s counsel Irfan Qadir told the bench that Punjab CM Hamza Shahbaz and the coalition government wanted a full bench to hear the matter.

Meanwhile, Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari has issued detailed reasons for rejecting 10 Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) votes which paved the way for Hamza to retain the post of the provincial chief minister during the elections held on July 22.

In the two-page written reasons, the deputy speaker referred to Supreme Court’s May 17 as well as Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s) May 20 orders wherein 25 Punjab lawmakers were de-seated by the latter on the directions of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan.

“I have also considered the contents of directions of the party head of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf [PTI], which formed the basis of the de-seating of 25 members and exclusion of their votes from the tally of vote count of April 16,” the deputy speaker said.

“Based on the judgment of the Supreme Court, various petitions were filed before the Lahore High Court (LHC). A five-member LHC bench decided the petitions vide order dated June 30 and directed to exclude the votes of 25 members who violated the directions and voted in favour of Hamza Shehbaz.

“Consequently, the election was held between Hamza Shahbaz and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who were the contesting candidates in the elections previously held on April 16. As per the results in terms of the procedure laid down in the Second Schedule, Hamza Shahbaz polled 179 votes whereas Elahi received 186 votes.”

He said that he received directions issued by PML-Q President [party head] Chaudhary Shujaat Hussian to PML-Q lawmakers to vote in favour of Hamza Shehbaz.

“Considering the events, material, orders/judgments of the courts, I am of the opinion that the votes of members of the provincial assembly of the Punjab, belonging to the PML-Q, are in violation of the directions of the party head, therefore these votes are liable to be excluded from the final count of the votes in view of the judgments of the Supreme Court, LHC and ECP.”

The deputy speaker also quoted a relevant part of the order passed by the ECP in this regard.

“Keeping in view the above, we are of the view that the casting of votes by the respondent in favour of opposing candidates is a serious issue and the worst form of betraying the electorate and party’s policy. Therefore, we hold that the defection in the subject cases shall not depend upon strict proof of observations of pre-requisites as provided in Article 63A.”

Mazari said that the decision of the ECP to uphold the declaration was based on the violation of directions issued by Imran Khan and communicated to the members by PTI Secretary Asad Umar.

The decision shows that directions could be issued by the party head which was upheld by the ECP, the detailed ruling said.