Punjab elections: SC to hear Election Commission’s review petition today

The Supreme Court will hear today the review petition on the decision of elections in Punjab on May 14. Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Muneeb Akhtar are included in the bench. The Election Commission has filed a request for revision of the court decision. PDM has called for sit-in and protest today.
A three-member bench headed by the Chief Justice will conduct the hearing. Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Muneeb Akhtar are included in the bench. The hearing of the case will be at half past twelve. Strict security arrangements have been made in the Supreme Court and Red Zone on this occasion. The Election Commission has filed a request for revision of the court decision. PDM has given a call for sit-in and protest today.
Last month, a three-member bench of the top court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar declared the ECP’s decision of holding polls on October 8 instead of April 30 “illegal” and ordered the electoral watchdog to hold polls in Punjab on May 14.
Subsequently, the election organising authority moved the top court to review its April 4 directives. In a 14-page petition, the top election organising authority said that the apex court should review its decision as the judiciary “doesn’t have the authority to give the date of elections”.
“Such powers exist elsewhere under the Constitution but certainly not lie in a Court of law,” the ECP had said, citing various legalities and reasons behind its statement.
The electoral body accused the apex court of disregarding its constitutional jurisdiction, emphasising that it assumed upon itself the role of a public body in giving a date; “thus intervention by the court is necessitated to correct an error which has effectively changed the settled constitutional jurisprudence of the country”.
In a bid to ensure elections on the prescribed date, the three-member bench of the Supreme Court on April 14 ordered the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to allocate and release Rs21 billion from the funds held with it to the ECP.
On April 18, the ECP informed the top court that it had not yet received Rs21 billion required for holding elections to the Punjab Assembly on May 14.