IHC tosses out Gilani’s plea to annul results of Senate chief race

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed as non-maintainable an application filed by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Yousuf Raza Gilani requesting the annulment of the results of Senate chairman’s election.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case moved by the PPP leader through his counsels Farook H Naek and Javed Iqbal Weins. The petition requested the court to stop Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani from performing official duties, while declaring the results of Senate chairman elections and rejection of seven votes by the presiding officer as null and void.

The petition named presiding officer Syed Muzzafar Hussain Shah, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the Senate Secretariat and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani as respondents in the case.

The petition had prayed to declare Gilani as chairman Senate while accepting the rejected votes. Earlier in the day, the court reserved its decision on maintainability of the petition after listening to arguments by Gilani’s lawyer.

In the hearing, Justice Minallah remarked that parliamentary proceedings had constitutional exemptions. The chief justice questioned whether courts should interfere into parliamentary affairs. “Courts used to take care of supremacy of Parliament,” he added.

Gilani’s lawyer, Naek, pleaded that the Senate chairman’s elections were not part of the parliamentary proceedings, adding voters were told by the presiding officer to mark stamp anywhere within the box. He said the presiding officer had rejected seven votes in Gilani’s favour on the basis of stamps in the box of the candidate’s name on the ballot papers.

The chief justice asked whether Gilani had a majority in the Upper House. To this the lawyer answered, “Yes”. At this, the court said then Gilani could remove the Senate chairman with his majority and asked whether there was any alternate forum under the law for the petitioner.

Naek said the petitioner had no alternate forum; only the court could decide the matter pertaining to the rejection of votes. To another query, Naek said the presiding officer was appointed by the President and the Senate chairman had no role in it. There was no procedure to explain the way of stamping ballot papers, he said. The lawyer said the decision of the presiding officer could be challenged before the court, adding they had just challenged the electoral process.

He, however, said Senate chairman could be removed only through the vote of no confidence. The petitioner’s counsel said the scenario in Senate deputy chairman election was different. No parliamentary committee had powers to remove Senate chairman, he said while answering a bench’s question.

The petitioner’s lawyer pleaded before the bench that the Senate elections were held on March 12, in which Sanjrani had been declared as Senate chairman after the rejection of seven votes of his client by the presiding officer.

To a query by the bench, the lawyer said the elections were conducted under Article 60 of the Constitution. He read out the said article before the bench on its instructions and argued that Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah from the Grand Democratic Alliance had been appointed as the presiding officer.

To a question by the court, Naek said no one was the part of elections process from the Election Commission of Pakistan. He further said it was not mentioned in the rules that how the vote would be marked. After listening to arguments, the court reserved its judgment on maintainability of the case. It later dismissed the petition as non-maintainable.