The court will treat all petitioners on equal footing, irrespective of the nature of the cases, observed a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Javed Iqbal while hearing a petition regarding eligibility of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to hold the slot.
A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Sair Ali adjourned the hearing for next week due to want of time. After reviewing the case, the bench observed that the petitioner had raised some serious constitutional queries. Hence, the case would be heard at length next week.
Shahid Orakzai has filed the petition against a decision of a division bench of now defunct Islamabad High Court (IHC) that had rejected his review petition seeking removal of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
Orakazi contended that the Chief Minister was not entitled to hold the office. Shahbaz Sharif had resigned from Punjab Assembly seat PP-48 Bhakkar after becoming chief executive of the province. Afterwards, he also vacated PP-10 Rawalpindi and thus, without having any seat in the assembly, he could not hold the office. He said that Article 223 of the Constitution placed a bar on the dual membership of the Assembly, and a person having succeeded on two seats had to quit one within a month.
A member of an assembly can not vote in another assembly, under the same Article, and the principle applied for members of National Assembly and Senate, he added. "But Mian Shahbaz contested election from another constituency while retaining office of the CM which contravened the Constitutional provisions," he claimed. He argued that similarly under Article 224, serving ministers could not contest elections as only caretaker set-up had to function after dissolution of the assemblies.