Islamabad: The Supreme Court was requested on Saturday to initiate contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja and others for not implementing its orders on holding elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The petitioners named 16 respondents in the petition, including PM Shehbaz, CEC Sikandar Raja, four members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan, Sima Akmal, acting governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and Special Finance Secretary Awais Manzur Sumra. The petition was filed through advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique.
The petitioners requested that the supreme court begin contempt proceedings against the respondents for failing to comply with its orders, which included but were not limited to issuing show-cause notices, framing charges, and convicting and punishing the respondents for contempt of court.
The petitioners said that the relevant parties had specifically agreed before the SC to address the issue of financial hardship and to give the ECP the necessary finances to organise the general elections for the Punjab and KP provincial assemblies on schedule.
“Surprisingly, the federal government has deliberately failed to honour its aforementioned commitment made in all broad daylight before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, of course, thereby impudently committing contempt of court,” the petitioner submitted.
They further informed the court that the clear order issued by the SC clearly reflected the opinion and decision of the court regarding the matter at hand.
They said that the court’s judgement, dated 4 April 2023, for holding the general election for 34 NA seats and two provincial assemblies, Punjab and KP, had reaffirmed its earlier position and had not budged from the already specified date of 14.5 2023.
