The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the federal coalition and PTI to sit together and develop a consensus on elections in the country by 4pm today, but at the same time asserted that it would not go back on its order fixing May 14 as the date for elections to the Punjab Assembly.
The directives were issued by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar as the apex court took up a petition seeking to hold general elections to all the national and provincial assemblies in the country simultaneously.
At the previous hearing, the court had issued notices to the PTI, PML-N, PPP, JUI-F, MQM-P, BNP-Mengal, Awami National Party, Balochistan Awami Party, PML-Q, the law secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan and Jamaat-i-Islami, asking the parties to send their senior office-bearers for today’s proceedings.
A number of political leaders including Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, PTI leaders Fawad Chaudhry and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, PML-N leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique and Ayaz Sadiq, PML-Q’s Tariq Bashir Cheema, MQM leader Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani, JI emir Sirajul Haq and others attended the hearing today.
