Election tribunals formed by LHC
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved the verdict on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s appeal against the Lahore High Court’s order appointing eight election tribunals in Punjab to address election disputes after the February 8 general polls.
The development comes as the country’s top electoral authority’s plea was heard by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa-led five-member bench comprising Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi.
The matter involves the authority to constitute election tribunals which have been a point of contention between the LHC and the ECP for months.
The issue arose first when the ECP, on February 14, sought a panel of serving judges from the LHC for election tribunals.
The then LHC chief justice nominated two judges on February 20 which was followed by the nomination of another six judges by the CJ on April 14.
Out of these six nominated judges, two were notified by the ECP on April 26. However, the electoral body then additional names for the appointment to Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur election tribunals.
This, however, was denied by the LHC chief justice with the high court’s registrar calling on the electoral body to notify the election tribunals consisting of the judges nominated by the CJ.
On May 29, Justice Shahid Karim ordered the electoral body to appoint six more judges, nominated by the LHC chief justice, as election tribunals for hearing election petitions regarding the general elections and said that the notification would be deemed to have been issued in case of the ECP’s failure to comply by the court’s orders.
