Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has requested the Supreme Court (SC) to declare the presidential reference filed by the incumbent government for an open ballot in the upcoming Senate elections as non-maintainable.
JUI-F’s lawyer, Kamran Murtaza, submitted a reply on Monday to the larger five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed.
The reply of the opposition party said that the reference filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) “carries an inference, not in good faith, lacks jurisdiction and is meant to bypass the parliament, therefore, is liable to be declared as such”.
It pointed out that as a political party of the country, the JUI-F has a stake in both the sanctity of the elections as well as in the maintaining of the mandate of the Constitution.
The reply further stated: “The reference under the reply of paragraph 10 states that elections of the President of Pakistan are held “under” the Constitution, however, Entry 41 in Part 1 of Fourth Schedule of the Constitution also provides for election of president. The Elections Act 2017 does not state anywhere that it is enacted pursuant to Article 222 of the Constitution.”
The JUI-F reply alleged that the president had repeatedly misused his office in order to pass ordinances when National Assembly (NA) and Senate are in session, an act which is barred by Article 89 of the Constitution.
It added that, “The conduct of the president also discussed when it filed a reference against an honourable judge of this august court, although the majority view held that malice could not be established behind the filing of reference, however, the reference was set aside.”
The statement maintains that “the reference draws comparison to Senate elections with local government elections as this Honourable Court in Civil Appeals No. 760 & 765 of 2016 held that the Sindh government is competent to legislate law to hold elections either by show of hands or secret ballot. This comparison is deeply flawed as Article 140-A of Constitution provides that each province shall by law, establish a local government system and that the elections shall be held by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)”.
Senator Raza Rabbani also appeared before the bench and opposed the presidential reference. He will also submit his reply.
The hearing was adjourned until January 13, wherein the attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) would present his arguments.
Let us see the PDMA future as they look divided in resignation issues.