Once again, all eyes have turned to the Supreme Court after it fixed the matter of appointing election tribunals in Punjab for hearing. The case has been listed for hearing on August 19, after the end of the summer vacations in the court.
A five-judge larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, will hear the case.
Other bench members include Justice Aminud Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aqeel Abbasi.
The bench has been hearing the matter to decide who is the competent authority to appoint election tribunals in Punjab and hear representations from aggrieved candidates on matters pertaining to the February 8 general elections.
The top court's five-judge bench had last heard the case on July 4. The court had suspended the Lahore High Court's (LHC) decision and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) notification for establishing eight election tribunals in Punjab until its final verdict in the case.
It is pertinent to mention that no such issue was raised by any province other than Punjab.
Amid speculations of a 'judicial package' besides several allegations of rigging in the general elections levelled by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the case is being viewed with keen interest as it is linked with the survival of PTI-backed returned candidates from Punjab in the provincial and national assemblies.
PTI's objection to the inclusion of Chief Justice Isa on the bench—contending that, per a past decision in an unrelated case, he has alleged bias against the party—has already been overruled.
It is pertinent to note here that Justice Aminud Din and Justice Naeem Afghan were among the five judges who had dissented with the majority of judges when a 13-member full bench of the top court recently decided the reserved seats case in favour of the PTI. In their dissenting note, they had contended that the PTI was not entitled to the reserved seats as it was not a party at any stage of litigation. However, the eight majority judges' verdict has yet to be issued.
Both judges, in their joint dissenting note, observed between the lines that the majority of judges had suspended certain articles of the Constitution to grant relief to PTI as they told constitutional institutions not to follow any extra-constitutional order from the top court.
The other two judges in the five-judge bench, Chief Justice Isa and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, also disagreed with the majority on the award of reserved seats to the PTI; however, they recognised PTI as a legitimate political party.
In another case regarding the recounting of votes in some polling stations of three national assembly and one provincial assembly constituency, Justice Abbasi dissented from the main judgment, which granted relief to the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N).
At the last hearing of the election tribunals case, the top court held that the chief election commissioner (CEC) and the LHC chief justice should hold meaningful consultations on setting up election tribunals.
Following the top court's hearing, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) met LHC's CJ Aaliya Neelum for consultations.
However, Chief Justice Neelum turned down the CEC's request, maintaining that the present election tribunals, appointed by LHC's former chief justice, will continue to function as usual.
The LHC chief justice said that the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan will make the final decision on the election tribunals.
On May 29, Justice Shahid Karim's single-member bench of the LHC ordered the ECP to notify additional election tribunals for Punjab in light of the nominations sent by the high court's CJ. It held that under Article 219(c) read with Article 222(b) of the Constitution, the LHC chief justice had the pre-eminence in appointing election tribunals under Section 140 of the Elections Act, 2017.
Later, on June 12, the LHC CJ formed eight election tribunals in line with the May 29 order, compelling the ECP to challenge the decision.