Supreme Court reserves verdict on ECP plea challenging LHC decision for forming election tribunals

ISLAMABAD: A five-member bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved the verdict on the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) appeal against the Lahore High Court’s order appointing eight election tribunals in Punjab to address election disputes after the February 8 general polls.

The development came as Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa-led bench heard the ECP's plea. The bench also comprises Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi.

The case at hand revolves around the authority to constitute election tribunals which have been a point of contention between the LHC and the ECP for months.

The issue arose first when the ECP, on February 14, sought a panel of serving judges from the LHC for election tribunals.

The then LHC chief justice nominated two judges on February 20 which was followed by the nomination of another six judges by the CJ on April 14.

Out of these six nominated judges, two were notified by the ECP on April 26. However, the electoral body then additional names for the appointment to Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur election tribunals.

This, however, was denied by the LHC chief justice with the high court's registrar calling on the electoral body to notify the election tribunals consisting of the judges nominated by the CJ.

On May 29, Justice Shahid Karim ordered the electoral body to appoint six more judges, nominated by the LHC chief justice, as election tribunals for hearing election petitions regarding the general elections and said that the notification would be deemed to have been issued in case of the ECP's failure to comply by the court's orders.

The electoral body, while refusing to accede to the high court's registrar's demand, said that if it went through with notifying the election tribunals it would mean that they were in fact solely appointed by the LHC CJ and not as a result of consultations between the ECP and the chief justice — which essentially would be a violation of Section 140(3) of the Elections Act.

The then LHC Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad then constituted eight election tribunals for hearing cases related to the February 8 polls — a move which was then challenged by the ECP in the apex court.

The dispute owes its origins to the amendments made to the Election Act 2017 regarding which judges could be part of election tribunals.

The matter ended up in the apex court which on July 4 suspended the LHC's decision forming additional election tribunals as well as the ECP's April 26 notification.

Today's hearing

During the hearing today, the ECP's counsel apprised the court that the LHC chief justice has formed four election tribunals and the electoral body would appoint the remaining four.

To this, Justice Abbasi said: "[It] seems that as per the ECP's written response, the matter has been resolved after consulting with the LHC.

"Yes, because the law was changed, now four new tribunals will be appointed by the ECP," the lawyer replied to the puisne judge.

Expressing his views, CJP Isa remarked that those matters which do not concern the court should be solved via mutual consultations by the parties concerned.

Noting that the number of tribunals depends on the cases, the top judge remarked that it would be unfair if the number of judges were reduced in light of the cases.

Speaking on the occasion, PTI's Salman Akram Raja apprised the court that he has challenged the appointment of the retired judges in the high court.

"If the appointment of retired judges has been challenged in the high court then don't talk here," responded CJP Isa.

With the court, reserving the verdict, the chief justice directed the ECP to "start working on the notification of tribunals from today".