Judiciary-parliament friction set to increase

SC summons lawmakers who won by-polls in absence of a duly-formed ECP.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court’s summoning of scores of members of the National Assembly, provincial assemblies and the Senate is likely to increase friction between the judiciary and parliament which are already soured over parliamentary committee’s rejection of the names forwarded by the judicial commission headed by the chief justice of Pakistan.

The Supreme Court is learnt to have summoned at least nine lawmakers elected on the basis of bye-elections held since general elections in 2008.

The lawmakers, belonging to the PPP, PML-N and the PML-Q, have been told to appear before Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary to justify their claims of winning elections and sit in parliament in the absence of a duly formed Election Commission of Pakistan.

Dr Asim Hussain, who was recently elected as a senator and who is holding the portfolio of the prime minister’s adviser on petroleum, has also been ordered to appear before the apex court. Separate court orders have also been sent to legislators who entered the provincial assemblies after winning bye-elections.

The Supreme Court’s registrar has directed the National Assembly’s secretariat to ensure that these parliamentarians, whose electoral status is being questioned, appear before a three-member bench. The National Assembly secretariat is learnt to have sent the notices to these parliamentarians on May 6.

The notices were issued on a petition filed by chairman of the Tehrik-i-Insaaf Imran Khan, who has challenged the authenticity of the votes registered by the Election Commission of Pakistan on the basis of which the elections were held in the past.

The bench also includes Justice Mohamamd Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.

The MNAs who have been summoned by the apex court are: Awais Khan Leghari (Rajanpur), Asghar Ali Jaat, (Vehari), Jamshed Dasti (Muzaffargarh), Mohammad Akhtar Khan Kanju (Lodhran), Sardar Mohamad Shafqat Hayat Khan (Sargodha), Ch Tasaduq Masud Khan (Gujranwala),  Haji Khuda Bux Rajar, (Old Sanghar), Khadija Amir Malik (Bahawalpur) and Sardar Mumtaz Khan (Chakwal).

According to documents obtained by The Express Tribune, the deputy attorney-general was told to explain whether the election commission was functioning in accordance with the Constitution. “If so, how?” the court had asked the deputy attorney-general. The court had reminded him of observations made by the apex court in the constitutional petition No.32 of 2011 that “election commission having not been duly constituted will entail consequences that Pakistan can now ill afford”.

The deputy attorney-general stated that he did not have any instructions in this regard and sought time to obtain instructions. But, the court observed that this was the constitutional duty of the election commission to conduct elections to fill vacancies of the Senate and the National Assembly.

The court had questioned the legality of holding elections or preparation of electoral rolls in the absence of a duly constituted election commission.

The court orders sent to MNAs read: “And that what as such will be legal sanctity of the bye-elections”.

The ECP joint secretary, was directed to submit a list of all those parliamentarians who had won by-elections in the absence of a constitutional election commission.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2011.