The government coalition on Saturday expressed ‘no confidence’ in the three-member SC bench hearing PTI’s petition against Punjab election delay.
The bench led by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar is hearing the plea against the ECP’s postponement of the polls to October 8.
In a statement issued after the meeting, the coalition leaders asked the top court to end the proceedings in view of the four-member majority decision reached in the earlier suo motu hearing.
They lamented that CJP Bandial ‘wants to impose the decision of the minority on the verdict of the majority’.
“This approach wouldn’t only create constitutional and legal crisis in the country, but is also an example of deviation from the Constitution and the established legal norms,” the communiqué said.
The coalition leaders added that the approach is also against the basic concept of distribution of powers of the state.
A day earlier, the three-member SC bench turned down AGP Mansoor Awan’s request to form a full court to hear the petition.
According to the court, the law or the rules don’t support the composition of a full court and doing so would take the matter back to its start.
The judge also ‘disregarded’ the order issued by Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Aminuddin Khan on his suo motu powers and said it violates the rules laid down by a five-member larger bench.
The newly-reconstructed four-member bench formulated to hear the plea against the ECP decision was dissolved again after Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail recused himself from the case.
But SC announced that the bench comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, and Justice Muneeb Akhtar, would continue hearing the case.
Following the ECP‘s decision to push the Punjab elections from April 30 to October 8 due to the financial and security agencies’ acknowledged inability to support the electoral process, the PTI filed a petition with the Supreme Court.
