SC serves notice to Imran, aides in ECP contempt case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday served notices to PTI chief Imran Khan and party leaders Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry on a plea of the Election Commission of Pakistan seeking consolidation and transfer of all six challenges to its contempt notice against them pending before different high courts.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ayesha Malik and the newly elevated Justice Athar Minallah, a three-member bench heard the case.

During the hearing, CJP Umar Ata Bandial said that the ECP presented a judicial precedent of merging cases with the order of the Supreme Court, adding that the electoral watchdog was relying on Article 186A.

He asked the ECP counsel whether there was a precedent of the apex court to merge the cases of different high courts. “Is there an example of the decision of the Supreme Court to consolidate the cases of different high courts?” he asked.

At this, the counsel said that the top court had ordered the consolidation of income tax cases pending in various high courts in 1999.

The CJP said that the legal premise must be the same in all the pending cases in different high courts.Justice Malik said the Supreme Court in the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) cases had declared that cases pending before high courts would not be clubbed.

However, Justice Minallah recalled the Supreme Court had clubbed all the cases pending before the high courts in the Hajj corruption case.The ECP counsel said that cases of a similar nature might receive conflicting judgments from different courts.

At this, Justice Malik remarked that the court would decide when the conflicting decisions were challenged before it.The CJP asked under which constitutional authority did the Supreme Court order clubbing of cases pending in the different high courts.

The lawyer explained that the injunctions of the high courts in the contempt case had also been challenged in the Supreme Court.The court then directed that the ECP petitions against the injunction of the high courts should also be fixed with this case.Subsequently, the hearing of the case was adjourned for two weeks.

Petition

The ECP’s petition was moved through Advocate Sajeel Sheryar Swati. It requested to order consolidation of all six petitions before one high court instead of defending the commission’s stance over the issuance of contempt notices against PTI leaders in different high courts.Later, the ECP again moved the apex court requesting it to set aside various high court orders in favour of the PTI leaders who had challenged the contempt notices issued to them.