ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to the prime minister on a petition moved in 2015 by then-National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq against his de-seating by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as a member of the House.
Sadiq was re-elected to the House in October 2015, months after an election tribunal de-seated him as MP from NA-122 (Lahore-V) on charges of irregularities during the 2013 elections wherein he had defeated Imran Khan, defeating Abdul Aleem Khan of PTI by a narrow lead of around 4,000 votes.
The tribunal had also imposed a fine of Rs2.5 million on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MP who then approached the Supreme Court against the judgement.
In his appeal filed at the Lahore registry of Supreme Court, Sadiq had maintained the tribunal’s impugned order was against the facts of the case and laws governing the election process.
The petition was pending since then.
On Thursday, after nearly seven years, a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, took up the request and issued notice to the prime minister.
During the hearing, the bench observed the case was related to the 2013 elections, adding the term of those polls had ended in 2018. At this, Sadiq’s counsel said his client was fined penalised.
Subsequently, the court issued notices to the ECP and National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), directing them to pay for the expenses borne during the scrutiny of record.
