Senate Polls: Reply on open ballot plea till March 17

LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Tuesday gave the federal government till March 17 to respond to an application seeking directions for an amendment in the Constitution so that Senate elections could be held through open ballot. During the last hearing on February 26, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah had asked the government to submit a response by the next hearing (yesterday). On Tuesday, however, a deputy attorney general sought more time to file a reply. Petitioner Muhammad Azhar Siddique had filed the application in his petition seeking implementation of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution in scrutiny of candidates for the Senate polls. He had sought directions for the federal government to amend the Constitution so that elections could be held through an open ballot.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2015.