ISLAMABAD: For disobeying the Supreme Court’s ruling on the conduct of elections in Punjab, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, and others were named in a lawsuit for contempt of court.
The Punjab elections, which were originally planned to take place on April 30, have been postponed, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which announced the decision on Wednesday. Security concerns were cited as the main reason for the change in schedule.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has angrily rejected the electoral body’s decision and appealed it in the supreme court, despite the fact that the government has welcomed it.
A petition for the initiation of contempt proceedings and a directive to the respondents to carry out the ruling of the supreme court rendered on March 1, 2023, in a suo motu case involving elections was filed by attorney G. M. Chaudhry in the top court under Article 204 of the Constitution, read with Sections 3 and 4 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.
The PM Shehbaz, the CEC, the ECP members, interim Punjab Chief Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi, and the chief secretary were all named as respondents in the petition.
According to his argument, the respondents disobeyed the Supreme Court’s order from March 1, 2023, which violates Article 204 of the Constitution and amounts to contempt of the Supreme Court.
He further argued that in an order dated March 22, 2023, the respondent chief election commissioner and the other four ECP members listed various reasons and circumstances that were clear indications that all of the respondents had abjectly failed to carry out their constitutional obligations, functions, and duties.
The petitioner claimed that the respondents were directly at fault for failing to comply with the decision that the Supreme Court had issued in a suo motu case on March 1, 2023.
He asked the Supreme Court to summon the suspected violators of the court order in order to begin legal action against them, which would be penalised in accordance with the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.