Azam Nazeer Tarar demands simultaneous elections across Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Law Minister Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar on Thursday said that the parliament had approved the bill with reference to the Supreme Court’s (SC) suo motu notice under Article 184(3) and demanded that elections should be held in Pakistan at the same time, ARY News reported.

Speaking to international media, the law minister maintained that political parties including Pakistan People’s Party, Muslim League (N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) pleaded with the court to be parties in the case regarding the elections in Punjab but these political parties were neither heard nor made a party in the case.

He said that the constitution stated that the ECP was burdened with the responsibility of conducting elections and that the mechanism for holding elections according to the constitution existed and implying that the court orders were contrary to it.

Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the security situation in the country was alarming and the security forces were engaged in operations against terrorism.

The minister said that political parties and bar councils requested the court to form a full court, which was not approved. If elections were held in Punjab, the National Assembly elections would be affected, he added.

He further said that many questions were being raised in the country after the decision of the Supreme Court. “With reference to the dissolution of assemblies and general elections, the constitution stated that elections should be held within ninety days after dissolution, but there were many schemes in the constitution and many other provisions of the law”, he added.

He said that in 2010, amendments were made in Articles 224 and 224(A) of the Constitution due to several experiments of elections.

He said that Article 217 stated that elections in the country would be held simultaneously under the supervision of the Election Commission of Pakistan while Article 218(3) of the Constitution stated that the Election Commission of Pakistan was responsible for conducting transparent and impartial elections in the country.

He said that during the hearing of the petitions, the government and political parties requested the court to decide in this matter that the petitions were rejected by a majority of four to three. In this regard, political parties and bar councils demanded the Supreme Court form a full court, which was rejected, he added.

He said that the most senior judges of the Supreme Court were kept away from the bench while the junior judges were included in the bench. After the decision on the date of the election in Punjab, the federal cabinet carefully reviewed the decision and the parliament passed a resolution that the elections of national and provincial assemblies should be held at the same time in the country, he added.

He said that the Supreme Court has given the date of the election in Punjab on May 14, but with reference to KPK, it had been asked to contact the relevant forum. In this way, if elections were held first in Punjab and then in KP and then in the other two provincial and national assembly elections, not only financial problems would arise but also a continuous problem would arise in the future, he added.

In response to a question, the Federal Law Minister said that a decision should be taken by the full court regarding the holding of elections and if the full court was not formed, there was a possibility of a constitutional and political crisis in the country.

He said that a 13-member bench of the Supreme Court should be formed which could hear and decide on this matter in a few days.