LAHORE:
Leaders of the coalition parties met on Saturday, a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif invited allied parties in the federal government to discuss the ongoing situation in light of a deepening judicial crisis in the country.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is presiding over the meeting, which was also reportedly joined by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif via video link.
According to sources, co-chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and former president Asif Ali Zardari, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Chaudhry Salik Hussain, PML-N chief organizer Maryam Nawaz and Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui also participated in the meeting.
PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Federal Minister of Law Senator Azam Nazir Tarar, Attaullah Tarar, Malik Ahmed Khan and Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan also participated in the meeting to assist the premier.
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The prime minister called the huddle of allies at a time when the top court’s bench was being disbanded and reconstituted on a regular basis in connection with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) petition against the postponement of elections in Punjab.
Ahead of the meeting, a key PML-N minister said that the government would deliberate on the current political situation, the upcoming elections in line with the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision and the Supreme Court (SC) proceedings, as well as the role of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justsice Umar Ata Bandial and the top court, saying the meeting had been called as the government believed in moving ahead with its allies’ consent.
The coalition government has been accusing the judiciary of alleged “bench-fixing” in crucial cases, continuously giving “discriminatory” judgments and handing out one interpretation of the constitution to PTI chief Imran Khan, and another to the ruling alliance.
The PML-N-led federal government had been demanding the formation of a full court to decide the matter while some key leaders of the ruling party had openly criticised some senior judges, including the CJP, for their alleged impartiality.
The case
Recently, a five-member bench of the SC led by CJP Bandial was formed to hear the PTI’s petition against the ECP’s March 22 notification, announcing the postponement of elections in Punjab, earlier scheduled for April 30, 2023.
However, the federal government and the CJP came face to face after the government passed a bill – The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023 – from the National Assembly (NA) and the Senate, clipping CJP Bandial’s powers to initiate suo motu proceedings and to constitute benches on his own, proposing that a three-member committee should decide such matters.
Soon after the bills sailed through both houses, a SC bench held that all cases that various benches were hearing under Article 184 (3) of the constitution be postponed until amendments were made in the Supreme Court Rules 1980 regarding the discretionary powers of the CJP.
The three-judge bench led by Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and comprising Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Shahid Waheed, issued the verdict with a vote of two to one; with a dissenting note by Justice Waheed.
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Later, the CJP through the SC registrar issued a circular and “disregarded” the judgment issued by Justice Isa and Justice Aminuddin.
The government had been calling the CJP to put his house in order, arguing that the nine-member bench had come down to three and it was time that the CJP constituted a full court so that collective wisdom of the top court decided the election matter once and for all.
However, the CJP has so far refused to constitute a full court and is all set to take up the matter on Monday. CJP Bandial said that neither law, nor rules talked about the composition of a full court and the court would not “go back” to the start as the matter was being heard for days now.
A day earlier, Justice Bandial said in the courtroom that he would conduct some meetings after the hearing, hoping: “Monday’s sun would rise with good news.”
Source link: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2409406/coalition-huddle-ponders-future-strategy-1