Remarks court should not take up political matters
\n ISLAMABAD
\nSupreme Court of Pakistan judge Justice Athar Minallah has released his detailed note and remarked that the court should not take up political matters.
\nJustice Athar Minallah was one of the four judges of the top court who had recused himself from a nine-judge bench hearing election date suo motu notice regarding a delay in the announcement of a date for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over a month ago.
\nJustice Minallah now released the 25-page detailed note observing that the court should not hear political matters on its own. \u201cObjection was raised to suo motu notice which was disposed of,\u201d he added
\nWhile recusing himself from the bench over a month ago, Justice Athar Minallah in his dissenting note then had said that the order of Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial \u201cdoes not appear to be consistent with the proceedings and the order dictated\u201d in the open court.\u201d
\nThe SC judge had noted that the questions raised before them cannot be considered in isolation because questions regarding the constitutional legality of the dissolution of the provincial assemblies of Punjab and KP cannot be ignored. \u201cWere they dissolved in violation of the scheme and principles of constitutional democracy before completion of the term prescribed under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (\u2018the Constitution\u2019)?\u201d
\nJustice Minallah had said the questions regarding the legality of the dissolution involve far more serious violations of fundamental rights, adding \u201cthe matter before us is definitely premature, because it is pending before a Constitutional Court of a province, as noted in the opinion of my learned brother Yahya Afridi, J.\u201d
\nHe said the Chief Justice has the authority to constitute benches and clarified his position saying that it should be noted that he neither left the bench nor gave any such reasons in his brief note. Athar Minallah also remarked in his dissenting note that the apex court\u2019s suo motu notice on Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) elections stood rejected by 4-3.
\nHe remarked that there were three basic reasons to reject the notice. \u201cThe bench which heard the case was obligated to follow the basic principles enshrined in Article 184 (3), the court should handle political cases with great care to preserve its dignity, and it should also take the petitioner\u2019s code of conduct and intentions into consideration,\u201d he remarked.
\nThe petitioners\u2019 behaviour was not a solid reason to invoke Article 184 (3), he remarked. \u201cThe legitimacy of the court\u2019s verdict solely depends on the public\u2019s belief that the Court is an independent, impartial, and apolitical arbiter of disputes between political stakeholders,\u201d said the judge. He also explained that issue of elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was political and was being adjudicated by a high court.
\nEarlier, Justice Minallah had distanced himself, along with Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, and Justice Jamal Ahmad Khan Mandokhail, from hearing the suo motu case regarding elections in Punjab and KP.
\nA three-member bench \u2014 comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar \u2014 announced the reserved verdict on the PTI\u2019s petition challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s order postponing the elections in Punjab and KP
\nThe Supreme Court declared the ECP\u2019s order postponing the provincial assembly elections until October 8 as \u201cunconstitutional\u201d and ordered the government to release Rs21 billion funds for elections in Punjab by April 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Remarks court should not take up political matters ISLAMABAD Supreme Court of Pakistan judge Justice Athar Minallah has released his detailed note and remarked that the court should not take up political matters. Justice Athar Minallah was one of the four judges of the top court who had recused himself from a nine-judge bench hearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-324469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n