ISLAMABAD: The code of conduct issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for crucial by-elections, which had been partially struck down by the Lahore High Court (LHC), was restored by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Setting aside two identical high court judgments, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar asked the LHC to re-hear the matter and decide it, preferably within a month, since it was bound to affect upcoming by-elections as well.
The apex court issued the order on an appeal moved by ECP against two similar high court orders on the grounds that the high court had interpreted constitutional provisions without even hearing the government’s point of view.
The matter at hand was initiated when PTI leader Mansoor Sarwar Khan challenged an ECP notification of May 7, which restrained MNAs and MPAs and other holders of public office from campaigning for their candidates when the by-polls for PP-196 Multan, NA-108 Mandibahuddin and PK-56 Mansehra were announced.
LHC Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah heard the matter on May 25 and struck down ECP’s bar on MNAs and MPAs campaigning for party candidates as being ultra vires of the constitution.
The aggrieved ECP then came to the Supreme Court which suspended the high court order on Sept 8.
Since the ECP had issued the code of conduct for by-elections on constituency-to-constituency basis, the commission issued another similar notification on Sept 16 – pursuant to the apex court’s Sept 8 order – for the crucial by-polls announced in PP-16 Attock, NA-122 Lahore and NA-154 Lodhran.
Though the by-election in NA-122 has already been held, polls in NA-154 stand suspended on the orders of the Supreme Court.
Surprisingly, the Sept 16 notification, which is a near perfect copy of the May 7 notification, was challenged by another PTI leader, Shoaib Siddiqui, before LHC Justice Ayesha A Malik on Sept 23. The judge struck down the notification again, despite the fact that the similar, partly heard case of Mansoor Khan already was pending before the Supreme Court.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court remanded both petitions back to the high court on the grounds that the judgments could not be sustained under the law, since both breached the requirements of the law laid down in different apex court judgments.
Senior counsel Hamid Khan, representing Mansoor Khan, conceded that the mandate of the law had not been fulfilled and presented no objection on the court’s decision to set aside the LHC judgments.
The apex court ordered the LHC registrar to club both petitions together and fix them before a bench in a week. The high court will, however, decide the matter expeditiously after hearing arguments afresh.
EOBI chairman: A separate bench of the Supreme Court, rejected, on Tuesday, the bail application of former Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) chairman Zafar Iqbal Gondal.
The two-judge bench, headed by Justice Ijaz Chaudhry, heard an appeal moved by FIA, challenging the bail granted to Mr Gondal by the LHC and the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
Mr Gondal was charged with causing a loss of Rs42 billion to the national exchequer by investing huge amounts of money in private sector projects without the approval of EOBI’s Board of Trustees (BoT).
The investment project included the purchase of plots in DHA, the purchase of Crown Plaza for Rs430 million in F-7 Markaz Islamabad, the acquisition of two 4300cc Prado SUVs for the chairman, two controversial plot purchases in Sukkur, the development of a cricket ground in Islamabad, the purchase of plots in Islamabad and Lahore, purchase four floors of a hotel in Lahore, construction of a seven star hotel in Lahore, construction of the M-9 Motorway and purchase of 20 kanals of land near the Karachi airport on exorbitant prices.
Deputy Attorney General Sajid Illyas Bhatti informed the Supreme Court that Mr Gondal had a number of cases against him, six in Islamabad, seven in Lahore and two in Karachi, but he had managed to obtain bail in six cases from LHC and one case from the IHC.
The DAG argued that due to the grant of bail, the investigation agency was facing problems in proceeding further and requested the court to reject the bails granted.
Fuente: http://www.dawn.com/news/1212939/sc-sends-matter-of-ecp-code-of-conduct-...
