PTI has no objection to full court bench formation: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister Asad Umar said on Monday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has no objection to the formation of a full court Supreme Court bench in cases related to the CM Punjab election, ARY News reported.

In a statement, Asad Umar said that PTI never opposed the formation of a full SC bench in CM election case. “PTI never spoken nor issued any statement related to coalition govt.’s full bench demand,” he said.

Supreme Court (SC) today rejected the government’s petition for formation of a full court bench to hear the case of the Punjab chief minister’s (CM) election.

A three-member apex court bench, comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar, heard the plea filed by PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi challenging Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari’s ruling in CM Punjab election.

Today’s hearing

CJP Umar Ata Bandial said that the court needs more legal clarification on certain things to decide about the formation of full court. The CJP also said that he was unsure whether the decision on the said ruling will be made today.

Mazari’s lawyer, Irfan Qadir said he was instructed to speak regarding the formation of the full court only; therefore, he needed time to take instructions from his client. Separately, Hamza Shahbaz’s counsellor Mansoor Awan also sought time to take instructions for arguments on merit.

Meanwhile, Justice Ijazul Ahsan remarked that the apex court wanted to hear the matter of the deputy speaker’s controversial ruling on merit before deciding about forming the full bench.

However, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarrar asserted that there was enough clarification in this regard. He added that if the review petition is approved that there will be no need for a run-off election.

Presenting his arguments, advocate Irfan Qadir added that when allegations are levelled against the judges that similar bench is formed repeatedly then these charges can be rejected by the formation of a full court.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pervaiz Elahi secured 186 votes against 179 votes of PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz. However, Mazari had dismissed PML-Q’s 10 votes after party head Chaudhry Shujaat asked them to vote in favour of incumbent chief minister Hamza Shahbaz.