Election tribunals set to win further extension for pending cases

Exactly a year after the 2013 elections, there were still around 100 cases pending with tribunals

ISLAMABAD:

The election tribunals, set up to decide election complaints within four months, are going to get another extension since over 50 cases are still pending with them even though 17 months have lapsed since the May 2013  elections.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) received hundreds of complaints after the general elections. Weighing the seriousness of complaints after initial hearing, it referred over 400 cases to post-election tribunals.

The poll body notified these tribunals of the cases on June 3, 2013. Under the law the petitions were to be decided within four months, except for situations when unavoidable circumstances lead to further adjournments.

Exactly a year after, there were still around 100 cases pending with tribunals and the ECP was prompted to notify an extension till December 31, 2014.

However, there are still over 50 important cases – mostly of high-profile politicians – pending with these tribunals.  Sources said it is likely that the ECP will be giving another extension to these tribunals once their current extension expires.

“Since there are many cases pending with some tribunals, we would have no choice but to notify another extension,” a senior ECP official told The Express Tribune.

The move has left a question mark over the performance of the post-election tribunals which were set up to expedite judicial remedy in election matters.

After due deliberations, ECP had experimented with the idea of appointing retired high courts’ judges as tribunals’ heads, for the first time in electoral history of the country. The relevant laws were changed by the last parliament on the recommendation of the ECP.

Earlier, serving judges of the high courts acted as judges of post-election tribunals in their respective provinces.

Realising that the experiment has failed to yield the desired results, the ECP is now contemplating reverting back to the old system, where serving judges of high courts were nominated for the post-election tribunals, but with certain changes in the laws.

“We are proposing that once a high court judge is notified to head an election tribunal, the concerned chief justice should relieve him from other judicial work for the period of six months,” a senior official privy to the development told The Express Tribune.

Moreover, the current period of maximum of 120 days to dispose of a case, will be enhanced to six months with some stringent clauses that could deter further delay in reaching a decision, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2014.