ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), Tuesday, deferred hearing of Senator Yousaf Raza Gilani’s Intra-Court Appeal (ICA) challenging the rejection of seven votes in the Senate chairman election.

A division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri heard the ICA, which was filed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and Senator Yousaf Raza Gillani against the IHC decision, wherein, it had turned down the PPP leader’s petition challenging the result of the election for the chairman Senate.

The court adjourned the hearing without further proceedings and fixed August 5 as the next date of hearing.

In the last hearing, Attorney General Khalid Javed had concluded arguments and gave references of various court judgments from Pakistan and outside in his arguments, and contended that the parliament’s proceedings could not be challenged at any forum under Article 69 of the Constitution.

Gilani’s lawyer Farooq H Naek, in his arguments, had also mentioned judgments of the courts of Bangladesh and London. He contended that the presiding officer’s decision in the Senate election could be challenged in court because the president of Pakistan had appointed Muzafar Hussain Shah to preside only the first session of the Senate polls. He added that only the Senate chairman was authorized to give ruling in the Upper House instead of the presiding officer.

The counsel argued that the single-member bench had rejected their case on the ground that the matter is related to parliamentary proceedings and that it was an internal subject of the Upper House of the Parliament. Naek said that the parliamentary proceedings had immunity under Article 69 of the Constitution but how it could be called a procedure, when a particular voting method had not been mentioned in the rules. Gillani’s counsel contended that the presiding officer belonged to the PPP’s opponent party and the rejection of seven votes by him was unlawful. Gillani has prayed before the court that the single bench of the IHC did not take into account complete facts during the proceedings of the case.

A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah had rejected his petition by declaring the same non-maintainable after hearing the arguments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021