Ruling coalition meets in Lahore today to discuss legal issues

LAHORE: The ruling coalition partners will meet in Lahore today with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair to devise a strategy pertaining to the ongoing political crisis and cases being heard at the Supreme Court, ARY News reported on Saturday.

According to sources, the meeting will be held at PM’s residence in Model Town where coalition parties will be briefed on the cases being heard by the Supreme Court (SC).

The allied parties will devise a strategy to deal with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and legal challenges, they say.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif will also join the discussion from London, say sources.

The all-important huddle comes a day after Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial rejected the government’s request to form a full court on the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa election delay case.

The three-member bench heard the PTI plea against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision to delay polls and rejected the full court request put forward by Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan on behalf of the government

It may be noted that initially, a five-member bench was hearing PTI’s plea against the postponement of elections in Punjab by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The bench was disbanded for the second time yesterday following the recusal of Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Aminuddin Khan.

PTI had challenged the election commission’s decision to change the date of election in Punjab and KP. Punjab and KPK assemblies’ speakers Sibtain Khan and Mushtaq Ghani have filed a joint constitutional petition on behalf of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.