Thumb impression verification: PTI petition elicits reserved SC response

Bench seeks report of election tribunals investigating foul play in two NA constituencies.

ISLAMABAD:

To use an analogy that cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has used over the years, the apex court ‘left one outside the off stump’ on Monday.

For the last five years, the Supreme Court had displayed a penchant for taking up contentious and potentially explosive petitions with a high degree of abandon – but the era of Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani has begun with a lot more circumspectness. The new chief justice had earlier promised restraint – and he followed through on that on Monday while hearing a petition demanding that the court order the verification of thumb impressions in four constituencies to check the level of rigging in general elections of May 11.

In the very courtroom that saw a number of hotly-contested issues controversially admitted for hearing, Chief Justice Jillani pressed Imran Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to reconsider his plea.

During the preliminary hearing of the PTI chief’s petition, Chief Justice Jillani, heading a three-judge bench, hinted that it might not be possible for the court to entertain the petition – and warned that such intervention by the court might open up a gamut of issues.

“We are court of precedence. If we open this window for you then we cannot stop petitions from different parties and individuals on this subject across the country,” he told Imran who attended the the Supreme Court, flanked by his party leaders and Awami Muslim League chief Shaikh Rasheed Ahmad.



“At the full court reference, I had put emphasis on devising a strategy to discourage frivolous petitions. Even we need to determine the jurisdiction of this court under Article 184 (3),” the chief justice added.

The court seems to have convinced Imran Khan of this stance for now. Showing flexibility on an issue that he had previously pressed aggressively and unyieldingly, Imran Khan replied that if the court wanted to set a ‘good precedent’ then it should order the election tribunals to expedite the process of inquiry.

Imran requested that in case his petition regarding thumb audit in four National Assembly’s constituencies could not be accepted, the court might direct the election tribunals to expedite the process of verifications.

The bench accepted this request by the PTI chief, though it was contrary to the stance taken by his counsel—who had got this offer from the court at very outset of the proceedings but was trying to convince the court on audit of four constituencies.

The order

In its written order, the court observed in that it would not, at this stage, comment on the merit of the petition.

“There are two aspects of this case, one is political and the other is constitutional. We will only focus the latter aspect during the hearing,” the CJ had replied to the PTI chief, when the latter had pressed that the issue raised was not party-specific, but of public importance and fundamental rights of a citizen.

However, the court asked the secretary of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to submit para-wise comments about non-compliance of the apex court judgment by two election tribunals of Lahore and Lodhran within 15 days.

The petitioner’s counsel had claimed that these two tribunals had allegedly failed to dispose of complaints within given time of 121 days in violation of Supreme Court’s directives.

Imran’s counsel Hamid Khan though continued his arguments, saying that this was violation of court’s judgment on June 8, 2012 in Worker’s Party vs Federation of Pakistan case, wherein directions given by the court were not complied with.

He said in the said judgment, the court had made certain declarations, directions and observations that general elections should be free, fair and transparent.

“But at the elections there has been a massive rigging, whose major victim is petitioner’s party — the PTI. In particular the petitioner has referred to the various incidents of irregularities in four constituencies and prayer made is that directions be issued for recounts of vote cost and it will give general idea of rigging,” Hamid Khan said.

PTI reaction

Talking to media after hearing, Imran Khan said the Supreme Court had taken a first step and that this is only the start of the journey.

“We are happy with the court decision,” said PTI’s spokesperson Dr Shireen Mazari told The Express Tribune.

However, one of the members of the Khan’s legal team commented that Imran himself weakened his case, while leaving his counsel of a more challenging situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2013.