NA passes resolution rejecting SC’s Punjab polls verdict

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution rejecting the three-member Supreme Court bench’s verdict on the Punjab polls, ARY News reported.

The Supreme Court Tuesday nullified electoral watchdog’s decision about the delay in holding polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and fixed May 14 as the date for polls in the province.

The verdict was announced by a three-member bench — comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar — on the PTI’s petition challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s order postponing the elections in Punjab and KP.

The resolution, moved by Balcohsitan Awami Party (BAP) lawmaker Khalid Magsi, was approved by a majority of the lawmakers.

The motion urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet not to abide by the three-member Supreme Court ruling.

Reading out the resolution on the floor of the National Assembly, Magsi said: “This House rejects the minority decision of the three-member bench and binds the prime minister and the cabinet not to implement the unconstitutional and unlawful decision.”

قومی اسمبلی کے اجلاس میں سپریم کورٹ کے تین رکنی بینچ کے الیکشن کے فیصلے کے حوالے سے قرارداد پیش

خالد مگسی کی طرف سے پیش کردہ قرار داد کو منظور کرلیا گیا pic.twitter.com/Yt17sLRTmT

— National Assembly of 🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) April 6, 2023

The resolution noted that multiple sections of the society had called on the top court to form a full court bench but it was ignored and only one political party was heard in the case.

It further said that the house considers the conduct of general elections simultaneously across the country as the solution to all the problems. The resolution also demanded the formation of a full court bench to review the “wrong interpretation” of Article 63-A.

‘Mockery of the Constitution’

Yesterday, the Prime Minister described the decision, in a cabinet meeting, as a “mockery of the Constitution and law” and said it could not be implemented.

A mockery was being made with constitution and law and fate of the nation was being decided with strange decisions, he had said.

The three-member bench had rejected the appeal for constitution of a full bench and similarly, political parties’ pleas were also rejected, he added.

“How a decision of another bench was neglected while members of the three-judge bench who had earlier recused themselves and again joined it!” he questioned.