A three-member bench of the Supreme Court suspended the Lahore High Court’s order against appointment of returning officers across the country. The court ordered the ECP to issue the election schedule.

The order was issued after hearing Election Commission of Pakistan’s appeal against a Lahore High Court verdict that suspended the appointment of returning officers for the upcoming general election on Friday.

The bench was led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and includes Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah. The bench took up the petition minutes after it was filed on Friday evening.

The SC said that court orders are not normally suspended without notices but were being done due to the extraordinary circumstances.

The order also called upon the petitioner, Umer Niazi, to provide an explanation as to how his order did not constitute contempt of court. It added that the LHC order had been issued in ‘undue haste’.

Sources had said that the SC could potentially take up petitions against election delay on an emergency basis after the Chief Election Commissioner called on senior judges of the Supreme Court on Friday.

The hearing

At the outset of the hearing, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa clarified that he had wanted to include the seniormost judges of the court in the hearing but Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan was busy.

He added that Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had been called from home for the hearing.

CJP Isa also asked ECP’s lawyer Sajeel Swati why they were suddenly in a hurry.

The lawyer replied that time was running out to issue a schedule for elections and the Commission was trying to hold the elections as soon as possible.

Justice Isa replied that it was not a matter of trying as the elections actually had to be conducted.

Justice Masood said that the lawyer who had filed the petition in the High Court could have been using PTI’s name. He said that it needed to be examined who was trying to derail elections when the SC had issued a clear order.

When the bench asked what PTI’s problem with the district administration was, the lawyer replied that the party had said that the bureaucracy was part of the executive had been issuing MPOs.

During the hearing, Attorney General Mansoor Awan admitted that he was not aware of the petition and had only learnt when the order had been passed.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah also observed that the appropriate course would have been to approach the SC as the LHC did not have jurisdiction to look at matters for the entire country.

ECP’s lawyer told the court that the Commission had halted the training of ROs in compliance of the LHC order. He added that the ECP had now gone over schedule as the training was not completed.

However, the bench asked why the training had been halted when it had not been required by the court order.

The meeting

CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja met Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faiz Isa and informed him regarding the order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) that struck down the appointment of returning officers.

Reports said that the ECP would challenge the LHC ruling over ROs and the matter would be fixed instantly for hearing by the Supreme Court.

According to the sources, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja came to the Supreme Court for this meeting at the invitation of the Chief Justice.

Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, and the Attorney General also participated in the meeting.

The CJP reportedly remarked during the meeting that the February 8 date for elections was set in stone.

According to the sources, the meeting is being held on the situation arising from the order related to ROs of LHC.

Sources also said that the Chief Justice first met two senior judges and consulted the senior judges regarding the order of the LHC, after this consultation the Attorney General and the Chief Election Commissioner were summoned.

The lead up

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, the Commission’s spokesperson rejected a recent statement from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf about a possible delay in elections as an attempt to mislead the public.

The statement said that the ECP had begun training ROs for the election, a task which had to be completed before the election schedule was issued as these officers would be responsible for accepting and scrutinising nomination papers.

However, the LHC ruling against the ROs in a petition filed by PTI had created a new situation which is being reviewed, the statement added.

Later on, the ECP issued another statement denying statements being attributed to it through ‘sources’ that the Commission would approach the Supreme Court over the matter soon.

The statement said that the news had been aired by ARY and other channels and said it was completely baseless. The statement said that the Commission reserved the right to act against the channels that had aired the item.

ECP said that it is following a ‘comprehensive’ schedule for fair elections in the country and it was determined to meet its targets on time.