ISLAMABAD: Following the Supreme Court’s decision to continue the hearing on the Punjab chief minister’s election with the current three-member bench, the ruling coalition, on Monday, announced to boycott the scheduled hearing Tuesday (July 26).

Addressing a press conference here, Pakistan Democratic Movement’s chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman along with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman and leaders of MQM, BAP, ANP and other coalition partners, said that in the light of the past decisions of the current three-member bench of the Supreme Court owing to their bias towards a political party, the ruling coalition partners have decided to boycott the proceedings.

Maulana said that the PDM and other ruling parties humbly requested the SC to constitute a full-court bench on the subject but the Chief Justice-led bench rejected the submission; therefore, they will not appear before the bench.

Maulana said, “Our lawyers in accordance with the constitution and well-recognised global practices submitted before the court for the constitution of the full court which they turned down,” so the ruling alliance is left with no option but to boycott the hearing.

The PDM has announced boycotting proceedings after the Supreme Court rejected the coalition government’s request for a full court on petitions related to the Punjab chief minister’s re-election and a review of its interpretation of Article 63-A.

The PDM will not join court proceedings till the formation of a full court.

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Maulana said that for long the judiciary was at loggerheads with the executive as a result it has not only created political unrest but also created economic destabilization.

He further asked all the national institutions to not interfere in governance matters.

He said that the coalition partners have also discussed to take all such issues to the parliament for necessary legislation in a bid to stabilize the country.

PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the decision to boycott the Supreme Court’s proceedings related to chief minister Punjab election case was collectively taken by all the coalition partners.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi of the PML-N said it was the SC’s test to ensure impartiality in this case.

“Worldwide, this is the practice: If fingers are pointed at a judge in a case, he steps aside. But here, this has not happened. We have no trust in this bench so we boycott the proceedings of the Supreme Court,” he said.

PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal said 25 PTI MPAs who voted for Hamza Shehbaz in the CM Punjab election were de-seated by the ECP at the behest of PTI chief Imran Khan but the SC gave no importance to PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s letter to the party MPAs asking them to vote for Hamza Shehbaz.

He termed it a discriminatory policy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022