The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to federal Attorney General and Advocate General Punjab in connection with a constitutional petition filed by Barrister Ghazanfar Ali Gull, a candidate for the slot of district nazim Gujrat.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice M Javed Buttar and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed adjourned the hearing to a date to be fixed later.
The bench observed that the petition related to a very important constitutional matter and it would look into it in detail.
The court, however, rejected the petitioner's request for a stay order against the election.
In the petition filed under Article 185 (3) of the Constitution, Ghazanfar Ali Gull has raised the question whether a person elected as member of a union council can exercise his right to vote in the election of Zila Nazim, Town/Tehsil Nazims and special interest seats without first taking oath of his office.
The petitioner, who argued his case himself in the court, contended that under the Punjab Local Government Ordiance-2001 an elected person shall be deemed to have entered upon his office only after taking the oath.
The petitioner has cited five respondents in his petition, including the Chief Election Commissioner, the District Returning Officer Gujrat, the Returning Officer Zila Council Gujrat, Chaudhry Shafaat Hussain and Tahir-ul-Mulk.
Lahore High Court judge Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi had given a judgement over the issue, but LHC Chief Justice Iftikhar Hussain did not uphold that decision.