Postponed election: First go to AJK court, SHC tells MQM

The petition will only mature after that court passes some order: SHC.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court has asked the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) candidates to first go to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir high court with their petition against the postponed elections before it delves into the matter.

Muhammad Saleem Butt and Muhammad Tahir Khokhar, who are existing members of the AJK Legislative Assembly, have gone to court over an alleged police report that warned of bloodshed on polling day. This report prompted the AJK to put off the polling in their constituencies, LA-XXX and LA-XXVI, on Sunday.

On Tuesday, the Sindh High Court accepted their request for an urgent hearing of their constitutional petition. But it asked Butt and Khokhar to first go to the AJK high court. Their lawyer, Barrister Muhammad Farogh Naseem, was aware that the suspension of this disputed notification (postponing the polling) does not fall in the jurisdiction of the Sindh High Court and he has not made the election commission of the AJK party to the petition, the bench observed in its order, passed after a detailed hearing.

The contentions raised by the petitioners’ lawyer looks attractive prima facie but we are of the view that this petition will mature only after a petition is filed before the AJK high court and some order is passed. Then this court can examine whether it can pass an order for the clarification of the matter (examining the report by the DIG headquarters).

Barrister Naseem told the court that the petitioners wanted it to direct officials to submit the report by the DIG Headquarters so that it may be examined. He argued that the DIG’s report was prepared behind the candidates’ backs.

Barrister Naseem submitted that there was no law and order threat and in fact, the Sindh chief minister had just two days before the report was prepared told the Sindh Assembly that the province’s law and order had improved.  The MQM candidates now want the court to ask the Sindh home secretary, IG Sindh, DIG Headquarters and Federal Secretary for Kashmir Affairs to quash the report and ensure security for elections in the two constituencies.

The bench observed that the request for security was reasonable. ‘Once a date is given, we can ... order the deployment of as many policemen as you want as security is the duty of the state.’

To a query by the bench, Barrister Naseem said that the candidates would move the AJK high court in a day or two. If we pass an order, it may cause trouble to you in the end, the court observed, and suggested that while the petition was kept pending, they approach the relevant court of jurisdiction in the meantime.

Justices Muhammad Athar Saeed and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi adjourned the hearing till July 1.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2011.