ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top court on Thursday asked the government and opposition to hold negotiations over delayed elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, saying it was important to reach a political settlement to uphold the constitution.
Earlier, the three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, resumed the hearing of the case amid growing political tensions with the country’s parliament.
The court took up the matter after former prime minister Imran Khan and his allies dissolved the provincial assemblies of Punjab and KP in January to mount pressure on the government to hold snap polls across the country.
The judges previously ordered the relevant authorities to hold elections in Punjab on May 14 and instructed the country’s central bank to release necessary funds for the purpose.
However, the government objected to the court rulings, saying they amounted to undermining the supremacy of parliament since lawmaking and money matters squarely fell within its domain.
“Please for the sake of the constitution, sit with each other,” the chief justice was quoted as saying by Geo News during the course of the hearing.
He was asking the government and ex-PM Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, who previously failed to resolve their political differences over the election issue, to reach an amicable solution.
While the government and PTI have said they are open to negotiations with each other, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif maintained on Wednesday it was not the apex court’s job to arbitrate among various political factions but “to give judgments as per law and constitution.”
The National Assembly speaker, Raja Pervez Ashraf, also wrote a five-page letter to the apex court before Thursday’s hearing, saying the judges should not encroach on parliament’s authority.
“I write to convey the profound concern and deep unease of the National Assembly with the orders passed by a 3-member Bench of the Supreme Court, on 14-04-2023 and 19-04-4-23, directing the State Bank of Pakistan Finance Division, Government of Pakistan to allocate/release Rs. 21 billion to the Election Commission of Pakistan,” he said. “These orders have been passed notwithstanding that such release has expressly been forbidden by the National Assembly.”
Quoting various “unambiguous constitutional provisions” that made it parliament’s prerogative to order the release of such funds, he said the three-member bench had “completely disregarded the constitutional process.”
“The National Assembly notes with great concern that despite knowing the consequences and effects of such prior authorization, which will be rejected by the National Assembly when presented for ex-post facto approval, the 3-member Bench of the Supreme Court has threatened the Federal Government of ‘serious consequences’ for not authorizing the expenditure of Rs. 21 billion,” the speaker said.
He maintained that Pakistan’s constitution had been violated by military dictators in the past, adding that the judiciary had “mostly ratified the undemocratic interventions.”
Ashraf said that Pakistani politicians had fought back such moves with the help of the people while also striving for the establishment of an independent judiciary.
The chief justice said during Thursday’s proceedings that politicians should resolve the election issue on their own, adding that court rulings were already available if the differences were not settled down through talks.
