ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan can initiate contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif if his government fails to implement a ruling that the election regulator’s decision last month to delay provincial elections was unconstitutional and ordering that the vote be held in Punjab on May 14, legal experts said on Wednesday, complicating the country’s political crisis.

The verdict has raised tensions between Pakistan’s civilian leaders and the Supreme Court. The federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says it is economically not viable to hold snap elections first in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where provincial assemblies were dissolved in January, and then have another general election this year in October.

The Supreme Court, however, has repeatedly ordered that polls be held in the two provinces within the constitutionally stipulated 90 days of the dissolution of the two local governments. On Tuesday, the court ruled that voting in the provincial assembly election in Punjab, Pakistan’s most prosperous and politically important province, should be on May 14. The date of the vote in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be decided later, pending technical issues, the court said.

“The government can try various methods to try and flaunt the judgment regarding elections in Punjab, but it is difficult to see them coming up with a route that isn’t clearly contemptuous,” senior lawyer and commentator Abdul Moiz Jaferii told Arab News.

One option, which Pakistani Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah hinted at on Tuesday, was imposing a state of emergency in the country if “circumstances develop.”

Article 232 of the Pakistani constitution allows the president to declare a state of emergency in case the country is threatened by war or external aggression, or by internal disturbance beyond the power of a provincial government to control. However, the National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament, has to approve the declaration within 30 days of its imposition.

“The emergency provisions of the constitution relate to the federation expanding its powers vis a vis the provinces when extreme circumstances permit,” Jaferii said. “They do not create the space for any constitutional scheme where the government is not bound to follow a Supreme Court decision.”

Jaferii said if the government failed to follow the Supreme Court’s order, “the only method of enforcement left to the court is through contempt.” 

“If it comes to the prime minister [Sharif] deliberately flaunting the courts orders, his disqualification would not be unprecedented,” he added.

In 2021, the Supreme Court found then sitting prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court for refusing to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. He was disqualified from office.

Advocate Salahuddin Ahmed agreed that the court could initiate contempt proceedings against PM Sharif also if his government failed to implement the verdict. He also ruled out the possibility of the imposition of emergency rule.

“I don’t think circumstances for imposing emergency are there presently,” he told Arab News. “Any imposition of emergency will be justiciable, anyway.”

The genesis of the crisis come from the dissolution of provincial assemblies in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces in January by ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan and his allies in a bid to force early general elections, since Pakista historically holds the provincial and national elections together. According to Pakistan’s constitution, elections must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of a legislative assembly.

But as the acting governments in the two provinces and the ECP failed to announce dates, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the case and in a 3:2 verdict on March 1 ordered the ECP to fulfil its constitutional obligation and announce an election schedule for the two provinces. The ECP subsequently said the vote in Punjab would be held on April 30 but later said it was impossible to hold the vote in April due to security and financial concerns, announcing October 8 as the new poll date in Punjab.

Khan’s PTI party then approached the Supreme Court, which ruled yesterday, Tuesday, that the delay was illegal.

All eyes are now on the Election Commission’s next move as it meets today, Wednesday, to discuss the SC verdict, while Khan has called on his supporters to come out into the streets this evening to show they stand with the Supreme Court and supported immediate elections.

Barrister Shoaib Razzak said holding elections was a “matter of public importance” and a constitutional right and the apex court could initiate contempt proceedings against Sharif if his government failed to follow the court order on the Punjab polls.

“The government may invoke an emergency to impede the legal process, but it will be difficult for them to justify it in the court,” he told Arab News.

Referring to the state of emergency imposed by late military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in November 2007, he said a full court of the Supreme Court had turned it down just a month and a half after its imposition.

“There is no legal option available with the government to flout the court order,” Razzak said. “We will be leading to chaos and anarchy if the court order is not followed.”

Barrister Reza Ali said the top court’s order regarding the polls in Punjab was “very clear” and contempt proceedings could be initiated against anyone who tried to impede it.

“The government cannot wriggle out of it,” he told Arab News. “The court has laid down a whole procedure in its order to hold the polls.”

Regarding emergency, he said the move would be challenged in the court and the government would have to “explain and justify its scope” to the judges.

“Emergency cannot be imposed in the given circumstances,” he said. “And if the government does so, it will be turned down by the court.”