Refuse to let anyone sabotage or postpone elections: Supreme Court

Rejects another petition filed against delimitations

ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected another petition filed against the delimitations carried out by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), as Justice Sardar Tariq Masood – the senior most judge who is currently serving as acting chief justice – asked the plaintiff whether he did not want political stability in Pakistan.

The latest decision comes just a day after the apex court declared that no one could use the powers granted to the ECP under the constitution, reversing the judgment passed by the Balochistan High Court which had gone for delimitation of two provincial assembly constituencies in Sherani and Zhob.

As a three-member bench headed by the acting chief justice heard the matter, he observed that the announcement of election date wasn’t something ordinary and noted that the move had resulted in political stability.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah told the petitioner that they would not disturb the election date – February 8 – for the sake of such applications. “If you don’t want elections on time then you should give a statement in court, he remarked.

The Supreme Court judge also made it clear that they would not allow [anyone] to derail elections – very important remarks given that some quarters has been making efforts to delay the general elections by launching a multipronged propaganda on both mainstream and social media.

Justice Shah said nothing could be done as the election schedule had been announced and entertaining individual petitions would affect the electoral process.

Similarly, Justice Athar Minallah remarked that there shouldn’t be any delay in elections and they would not allow anyone to do so.

It was Amir Khan – the petitioner – who challenged a Balochistan High Court decision about the PB-12 delimitation, which also raises a question: how the provincial top court had modified the delimitations of two constituencies in one case [against which the ECP had moved the Supreme Court] and not when it comes to the second.

The Supreme Court in recent days have acted swiftly to foil the seemingly organised attempts to delay elections.

Previously, it had stopped the high courts from interfering in the domain of ECP – a constitutional body itself – to make it more powerful and immune from outside influence.

In first such move, it had nullified the ruling passed by Justice Ali Baqir Najafi of Lahore High Court (LHC), who stayed the appointment of bureaucrats as election officials [district returning officers and others] on a petition filed by the PTI.

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Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had also written in the orders that the LHC judge interfered in the Supreme Court jurisdiction and the plaintiff had committed contempt of court – a development that also included prompt issuance of election schedule.