Govt demands CJ Bandial to step down

Justice Minallah says suo motu case was previously dismissed by majority

ISLAMABAD:

The ongoing tussle between the government and Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial seemed to have reached a point of no return, as the former has asked the latter to step down over the “controversial” choices he made while directing the electoral body to hold election in Punjab on May 14.

In a hard-hitting news conference against the top adjudicator and two other judges, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb demanded that the chief justice should step down as his position has become controversial, especially, after Supreme Court’s Justice Athar Minallah’s note in the Punjab poll case.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif also accused the chief justice of pushing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) agenda and demanded his resignation.

In a tweet, the deposed prime minister said that the courts usually take the nations out of crises instead of pushing them into one. He also wondered about the powers the CJP exercised to impose a minority judgment on a majority decision.

Nawaz, while demanding the resignation of chief justice, wrote that Justice Bandial, who is “pushing the agenda of PTI while insulting his position as well as the constitution”, should resign immediately instead of causing further harm.

During the news conference, the government’s spokesperson said that the decision given by Justice Minallah has put a question mark on the judicial process, saying that a three-member bench led by CJP was formed on the petition that was already dismissed by four judges.

The information minister questioned why the bench was formed and why a decision came on it when there was no petition before the court, adding that how could people accept a decision the majority judges do not accept either.

The minister reiterated that political parties do not run away from elections and emphasised that the Punjab polls case issue was no longer limited to elections as it has become a matter of “bench fixing”, among other things.

Marriyum asked who would trust a decision if the constitutional crisis arises from the apex court itself. “Abuse of powers and arbitrary interpretation of the Constitution cannot be accepted,” she declared.

While referring to court proceedings, she said that the lawyers of all the political parties were present before the top court, but they were not heard, saying only those who had petitioned were heard. “Why these 13 parties were not heard?” she questioned.

The government’s demand of the CJP’s resignation has come on the heels of the National Assembly (NA) passing a resolution declaring that the “parliament rejects” a recent “minority” judgment of the apex court directing to hold polls in Punjab on May 14; bars the prime minister and the federal cabinet from implementing it; and urges the top court to form a full court to review the “rewriting” of the constitution under Article 63-A of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The lower house of the parliament, while expressing concern on the undue judicial interference in political matters, said that the recent judgment of the apex court was creating political instability in the country and paving the way for the division of the federating units. For bringing political and economic stability to the country, the ruling coalition’s resolution stated, the House considers that holding general elections at the same time throughout the country is the solution to all the prevailing problems.