The Supreme Court has sought response from PTI’s Umair Khan Niazi, who challenged the appointment of bureaucrats as returning officers for polls, as it issued the written order of the case in which an apex court bench suspended the December 13 Lahore High Court order.

“The respondent No. 1 is stated to be a barrister and as such expected to be well-conversant with the Constitution and to have read the judgment of this court which had clearly stipulated that, ‘no one should be allowed to put forward any pretext to derail democracy’,” stated the six-page order issued on Friday.

A three-member SC bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah suspended the LHC order on Friday which stayed the appointment of district returning officers (DROs), ROs, and assistant returning officers (AROs) from the executive.

The top court also ordered the Election Comm­ission of Pakistan to notify a schedule for the February 8, 2024 general elections. Moments later, the polls overseer issued the schedule. The Commission will accept nomination papers from December 20 to 22.

The apex court noted that the total number of DROs, ROs, and AROs under the notification is 2,753 whose working was stopped by the high court “thereby derailing the process of elections with a stroke of pen”.

The order, which was authored by three judges, stated that Niazi attempted to acted against the judgement and lamented that he claimed to belong to a political party and served as an additional advocate-general, Punjab when the said political party was in government.

“In view of the conduct of the respondent No. 1 we call upon him to submit an explanation why action for contempt of court should not be initiated against him under the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003 read with Article 204 of the Constitution,” said the order.