LAHORE: In light of the chief justice’s nominations, the Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to notify six more electoral tribunals (ETs) for the province of Punjab.
The PTI-backed independent candidates Advocate Salman Akram Raja and Rao Omar Hashim Khan, who had lost their general elections in NA-138, Pakpattan, and NA-128, Lahore, respectively, submitted two similar petitions, which Justice Shahid Karim granted.
The judge declared in a 26-page decision that, absent the chief justice’s withdrawal of a nomination or attempt to replace it, the ECP must designate as electoral tribunals all six of the LHC’s justices.
The judge argued that when it comes to the appointment of ETs, a high court’s chief justice’s judgment is final, and the ECP is required to name judges who have been recommended by the chief justice.
He noted that it would be equivalent to usurping the administrative powers granted to a chief justice by the law and the Constitution to order a high court chief justice to designate this or that judge as ET.
This also violates the Constitution’s guarantee of the right to access justice. Furthermore, a chief justice would have to follow the ECP’s instructions if this were allowed to them, the court stated in the ruling.
According to Justice Karim, the chief justice is the most qualified individual to decide which justices to spare by taking into account a variety of factors and considerations within his own area of expertise.
He stated that when the chief justice wants a judge to decide a certain class of cases that he is capable of deciding quickly, the ECP cannot, under any circumstances, insist on that judge.
The judge declared, “The ECP has no access to these matters.”
Judge Karim gave the ECP instructions to notify the ETs, stating that as the matter is urgent, this must be done within the next week.
The court stated that if the ECP does not comply, it would be considered issued, and the LHC office will follow the directive and bring the cases before the chief justice for the purpose of allocating regions to the tribunals, including the six he has recommended.
Currently, Punjab is home to two electoral tribunals with the same number of LHC judges on them.
In their appeal, the petitioners argued that the chief justices of the corresponding high courts nominated five electoral tribunals each for Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three for Balochistan, and one for Islamabad, which the ECP then notified.
But according to the petitioner, the ECP in Punjab asked the chief justice of the LHC to designate nine justices as election tribunals. They claimed that two of the judges the LHC had recommended had been appointed as tribunals at first.
In view of the LHC’s recommendations for a prompt resolution of the petitions pertaining to the general election of 2024, the petitioners requested that the court direct the ECP to designate extra election tribunals.
