ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) appeal against the Lahore High Court’s decision to appoint eight election tribunals in Punjab to resolve disputes following the February 8 general elections.
The ECP’s plea was heard by a five-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, along with Justices Amin-ud-Din Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Naeem Akhtar Afghan, and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi.
The issue at hand involves the authority to establish election tribunals, which has been a point of contention between the ECP and the LHC for several months.
The dispute began when the ECP, on February 14, requested a panel of serving judges from the LHC for the tribunals. The then-LHC Chief Justice nominated two judges on February 20, followed by another six judges on April 14. However, only two of these judges were notified by the ECP by April 26, as the commission sought additional names for the Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur tribunals.
The LHC Chief Justice rejected this, insisting that the ECP notify the tribunals based on his nominations.
On May 29, Justice Shahid Karim ordered the ECP to appoint six more judges as election tribunals and stipulated that failure to comply would be deemed as issuance of the notification.
The ECP resisted this demand, asserting that notifying the tribunals would imply that the judges were solely appointed by the LHC Chief Justice, violating Section 140(3) of the Elections Act.
In response, the then LHC Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad constituted eight election tribunals to hear cases related to the elections, prompting the ECP to challenge this decision in the Supreme Court.
The controversy traces back to amendments made to the Election Act 2017 regarding the appointment of judges to these tribunals.
On July 4, the Supreme Court suspended the LHC’s decision to form additional tribunals as well as the ECP’s April 26 notification.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the ECP’s counsel informed the court that the LHC Chief Justice had formed four tribunals, and the ECP would appoint the remaining four.
Justice Abbasi remarked that it appeared the issue had been resolved through consultations with the LHC. The ECP’s lawyer confirmed that new tribunals would be appointed following the law change.
CJP Isa emphasized that matters not concerning the court should be resolved through mutual consultation. He noted that the number of tribunals should reflect the number of cases, cautioning against reducing judges unnecessarily.
PTI’s Salman Akram Raja informed the court of his challenge regarding the appointment of retired judges in the high court, to which CJP Isa responded that this matter should not be discussed in the current proceedings.
As the court reserved its verdict, the Chief Justice directed the ECP to begin working on the notification of the tribunals immediately.
