LAHORE: A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC), which was supposed to take up the PTI’s petition against the appointment of bureaucrats as returning officers, has been made virtually redundant following the Supreme Court’s order of Friday night.

The full bench was set to hold its maiden hearing on Monday, but the SC suspended the injunctive order passed against the ECP’s appointments.

LHC Chief Justice Muham­mad Ameer Bhatti had constituted the bench on the recommendation of Justice Ali Baqar Najafi. While hearing a plea filed by Barrister Umair Khan Niazi on Thursday, Justice Najafi had issued a stay order on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) appointment of bureaucrats as returning officers (RO) and district returning officers (DROs).

Justice Najafi was made head of the larger bench, with Justices Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry, Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, Jawad Hassan and Sultan Tanvir Ahmad as members.

The petition filed by Mr Niazi, who is also PTI’s additional secretary general, had requested the court to declare sections 50(1)(b) and 51(1) of the Elections Act 2017 “repugnant to the Constitution” therefore, the court could strike down the unconstitutional provisions.

As per Article 50(1)(b), the ECP can appoint DROs “by selection from a list of officers provided by the [federal] government or a provincial government.”

Under Article 51(1), ROs or assistant returning officers (ARO) can be ECP officers “or of any government or corporations, autonomous or semi-autonomous bodies controlled by any government, or from the subordinate judiciary in consultation with the chief justice of the concerned high court”.

The petitioner wanted the LHC to order the appointment of district judges as ROs and DROs.

In his order, Justice Najafi had noted that the petitioner’s apprehensions appeared to be well founded as some DROs, ROs and AROs were appointed from the bureaucrats currently posted throughout the country with whom the petitioner’s political party does not inspire any confidence.

“Undoubtedly, the holding of general elections costs this poor nation billions, which may be wasted if the election results are not accepted by major political parties,” Justice Najafi remarked.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2023