ISLAMABAD: Advocate Salman Akram Raja on Monday requested the Supreme Court to revisit its July 4 order suspending Lahore High Court’s notification of constituting eight election tribunals in Punjab.

In a review petition, the senior counsel pleaded before the apex court that the July 4 order had exposed the entire process of adjudication of election disputes in Punjab to the whims and arbitrary desires of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

On July 4, a five-judge SC bench, headed by CJP Qazi Faez Isa, had also ordered a meaningful consultation between LHC Chief Justice Aalia Neelum and CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja for formation of the tribunals.

The review petition pleaded that without providing any guidance with respect to the meaning and scope of the term “consultation” as used in Section 140(3) of the Elections Act, 2017, the LHC chief justice was directed by the apex court to engage in consultation with the ECP.

The scope of the word “consultation” has been elaborately defined by the Supreme Court in the 1996 Al-Jehad Trust case and the same interpretation has been consistently followed in all matters pertaining to judicial appointments, it argued.

Salman Raja contests ECP’s ‘arbitrary’ role in Punjab poll disputes

The petition contended that the view of the high court CJ with respect to the suitability of a particular person’s appoi­nt­m­ent as judge of any court should be granted the highest regard and consideration.

It said the June 12 LHC judgement has correctly held that the names of judges of the high court provided by the chief justice through April 4 letter may not be departed by the ECP as a matter of right or arbitrary discretion.

The view adopted by the ECP that it was entitled to disregard any name provided by the LHC chief justice without assigning any reasons had been held to be without any lawful basis, the review petition said.

The counsel argued that during the hearing before the Supreme Court, two of the members on the bench were very clear in their rejection of the ECP’s claim that it was entitled to receive panels of names from the LHC chief justice for it to choose judges for appointment to the election tribunals in its discretion.

Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail had clearly asked the ECP counsel to identify the basis in the text of the Elections Act or anywhere else in the law or in the Constitution for the contention that the ECP was to be provided panels of judges for each election tribunal to be appointed so that the commission could choose one of the judges for appointment.

“No answer to this query could be provided by the counsel for ECP,” the petition said, adding that in the law there was no basis for the ECP demanding a panel of judges for each election tribunal so that it might reject some or all contained in the panel provided by the high court chief justice.

Likewise, it said, Justice Aqeel Abbasi had also asked the ECP counsel to explain why judges nominated by LHC chief justice had not been accepted even though judges nominated by the CJs of other high courts, in particular the Sindh High Court, had been accepted without any objection.

No answer could be provided by the ECP counsel to this as well, the petition said.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2024