ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court’s Justice Athar Minallahremarked that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had no authority to prevent any party from partaking in elections.
“Election Commission does not have the authority to exclude any political party from [taking part in] elections,” Justice Minallah said.
His remarks came during the hearing of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) plea — against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict denying them reserved seats — being heard by a 13-member full court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa.
The bench comprises Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
During the hearing today, Justice Muneeb questioned which party SIC Chief Hamid Raza associated himself with, whereas Justice Mandokhail inquired whether a candidate can change his party after withdrawing his nomination papers.
Apprising the court of details regarding Raza’s documents and political affiliation, ECP’s lawyer Sikander Bashir noted that the document submitted by the SIC chief mentioned that he was associated with PTI-Nazriati (PTI-N), which in fact is a different political party altogether and is in no way linked to the PTI, the lawyer stressed.
“Raza, on oath, said that he was associated with PTI-N,” Bashir said.
However, the politician contested the polls as an independent candidate and didn’t submit the PTI-N ticket, but in fact, submitted a certificate showing his association with the PTI, the counsel added.
Furthermore, CJP Isa inquired whether it is necessary to attach a certificate of affiliation to the party from which the election is to be contested.
“It is necessary to show the candidate’s declaration and affiliation with the party,” responded the ECP’s lawyer, adding that a candidate is considered independent if the declaration and political affiliation do not match.
However, the chief justice noted that there was no discrepancy in the certificate and the ECP was in fact changing the candidate’s status.
“Why shouldn’t we consider [candidates] as belonging to the PTI?” CJP Isa said, highlighting that there are issues with the documents submitted by the ECP in the top court.
