FATA Senate polls: IHC directs government to submit reply
Court to hold daily hearings after filing of reply.
PHOTO: IHC WEBSITE
ISLAMABAD:
The Islamabad High Court has directed the government to submit a reply by Monday on a controversial presidential order under which the procedure for Senate elections in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) was changed hours before the polls.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamer Farooq took up the petitions filed by candidates from FATA, who have gone against a presidential order which changed the voting method at the eleventh hour.
On Tuesday, the bench observed that government has not yet filed comments and was directed to submit them to the court by April 20. The court also said that day-to-day hearing will commence following the next hearing.
When the case was taken up, the bench observed that preliminary objections were raised in a previous hearing and one of the petitioners had challenged the maintainability of the identical petitions under Article 225 of the Constitution.
“No election to a House or a Provincial Assembly shall be called in question except by an election petition presented to such tribunal and in such manner as may be determined by Act of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament),” states Article 225.
“We have already formulated questions, and the question of maintainability is one of them,” observed the bench, adding that after receiving the government’s reply, the court will hear all the petitioners on a daily basis.
The bench has formulated questions for debate so that when the case goes into daily hearings, there is no ambiguity over the actual issue before the court.
Among the questions, the bench observed that it was vital to know if the president had the power to revive a repealed executive order and if the president could pass such an order after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced the election schedule.
Moreover, the court had appointed four amici curiae — Hamid Khan, Asma Jahangir, Babar Sattar and Khawaja Haris — and issued directions to court officials to send copies of proceedings to the amici and the ECP.
The petitioners’ lawyers argued that the president did not have the power to revive the 2002 order as it had been repealed by the 17th and 18th amendments, adding that the Supreme Court had also declared it a “one-time order”.
It also surfaced during the hearing that the recent presidential order came into existence to stop corruption, but was withdrawn by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq when he was acting president for a short while.
Earlier, the government had annulled the presidential order, promulgated during former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s regime in 2002, which authorised FATA members to cast four votes and issued a new presidential ordinance under which they can cast only one vote.
The court had clubbed all the petitions in the case and remarked that it will decide the matter after hearing arguments from all the parties.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2015.
The Islamabad High Court has directed the government to submit a reply by Monday on a controversial presidential order under which the procedure for Senate elections in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) was changed hours before the polls.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamer Farooq took up the petitions filed by candidates from FATA, who have gone against a presidential order which changed the voting method at the eleventh hour.
On Tuesday, the bench observed that government has not yet filed comments and was directed to submit them to the court by April 20. The court also said that day-to-day hearing will commence following the next hearing.
When the case was taken up, the bench observed that preliminary objections were raised in a previous hearing and one of the petitioners had challenged the maintainability of the identical petitions under Article 225 of the Constitution.
“No election to a House or a Provincial Assembly shall be called in question except by an election petition presented to such tribunal and in such manner as may be determined by Act of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament),” states Article 225.
“We have already formulated questions, and the question of maintainability is one of them,” observed the bench, adding that after receiving the government’s reply, the court will hear all the petitioners on a daily basis.
The bench has formulated questions for debate so that when the case goes into daily hearings, there is no ambiguity over the actual issue before the court.
Among the questions, the bench observed that it was vital to know if the president had the power to revive a repealed executive order and if the president could pass such an order after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced the election schedule.
Moreover, the court had appointed four amici curiae — Hamid Khan, Asma Jahangir, Babar Sattar and Khawaja Haris — and issued directions to court officials to send copies of proceedings to the amici and the ECP.
The petitioners’ lawyers argued that the president did not have the power to revive the 2002 order as it had been repealed by the 17th and 18th amendments, adding that the Supreme Court had also declared it a “one-time order”.
It also surfaced during the hearing that the recent presidential order came into existence to stop corruption, but was withdrawn by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq when he was acting president for a short while.
Earlier, the government had annulled the presidential order, promulgated during former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s regime in 2002, which authorised FATA members to cast four votes and issued a new presidential ordinance under which they can cast only one vote.
The court had clubbed all the petitions in the case and remarked that it will decide the matter after hearing arguments from all the parties.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2015.