Federal Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar has demanded the Supreme Court of Pakistan to constitute a larger bench or full court to hear the case of Punjab chief minister election, as well as the review petition of the Supreme Court Bar Association about Article 63-A interpretation. Separately, former state minister Muhammad Talal Chaudhry and central leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has demanded that the full bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan should hear the party cases.
Addressing a joint press conference with Punjab Home Minister Attaullah Tarar here on Sunday, he said that political circumstances had reached such a situation that several constitutional issues needed to be resolved.
He said that the president of Pakistan had sent a reference to the Supreme Court for interpretation of Article 63-A before voting on no-confidence resolution against the then prime minister Imran Khan, and it was appealed that votes cast against the directions of the party head should not be counted.
The SC did not give stay order and the proceedings of no-confidence were completed, he added.
The law minister said that later, during election of the Punjab chief minister, the split 3-2 judgment was given that the votes cast against the directions of the party leader would not be counted. Therefore, 25 votes cast in favour of Hamza Shahbaz were not counted.
On Friday, in the run-off election for the Punjab chief minister slot, the votes of 10 members of the PML-Q, who had cast their votes against the directions of the party head, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, were not counted, in the light of the apex court verdict. He said that the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker announced the victory of Hamza Shahbaz as the chief minister, in the light of the SC interpretation of Article 63-A. However, the other candidate, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, moved the SC and appealed for counting those votes, he explained.
He said that the Supreme Court Bar and the civil society had demanded that hearing of these cases should be held altogether by the full court.
Tarar said that prominent lawyers including Latif Afridi, Yasin Azad, Fazal Haq Abbas, Qalb-e-Hussain and Ahsan Bhoon had also said that it was a serious and sensitive issue which was taken up by 8-member and 5-member benches earlier; therefore it should in heard by the full court now.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Talal Chaudhry said, “We are being meted out step-motherly treatment, which is against the fundamentals of justice provision.”
He said that various cases against Imran Khan were pending a decision including the foreign funding case. He said, “We have full confidence in judiciary, which should take up all cases against the leadership of PML-N, PTI and other parties.”
The former minister said that the PML-N had launched mega uplift programmes including China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and everyone was aware of the party services for the country and the people of Pakistan.
He said that the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was disqualified for “not receiving salary from his son” whereas, on the other hand, the mega scandals linked with Imran Khan including foreign funding case were pending for long.
He said Imran Khan was in the habit of hurling threats at the state institutions to get favourable decisions from them, he said.
Talal Chaudhry said that Chaudhry Shujaat was lauded when he favoured Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stance, but he was declared ‘dishonest’ by the party when he favoured the PML-N candidate.
