The Supreme Court on Monday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s (ECP) decision to disqualify PML-N lawmaker Adil Bazai. In October, the National Assembly Secretariat sent a request to the ECP to unseat Bazai. Considered an \u201canomaly\u201d, Quetta lawmaker Bazai is part of the PML-N as per official records but is often found on the opposition benches, criticising the government. It is also unclear which party supported him during the February 8 general election. According to the National Assembly website, Bazai contested the election from Quetta\u2019s NA-262 constituency. On November 12, the ECP reserved its verdict on a reference seeking Bazai\u2019s disqualification. Bazai\u2019s counsel maintained that he had never joined the PML-N and asserted that a fake affidavit had been submitted in his name with the ECP. He asked for a forensic audit of the affidavit. On November 21, the ECP disqualified Bazai over \u201cfloor-crossing\u201d. Announcing its reserved verdicts, the election regulator upheld the two references filed by the Speaker of National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, seeking Bazai\u2019s disqualification for violating party\u2019s policy. Monday\u2019s hearing was taken up by a three member bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and comprised justices Ayesha Malik and Aqeel Abbasi. At the outset of the hearing, Bazai\u2019s lawyer Taimur Aslam told the court that his client had been disqualified by the ECP under Article 63A. \u201cThe ECP did not properly ascertain the facts, nor did it call Bazai for an inquiry,\u201d he said. Justice Shah wondered how the ECP had any jurisdiction if Bazai\u2019s affidavits were in the civil courts. \u201cCan the Election Commission take notice of what\u2019s happening in civil courts?\u201d Justice Malik intervened to say that Bazai has two affidavits, and according to him, has only signed on the second one. \u201cCan the Election Commission inquire into fraud?\u201d she asked. Justice Shah suggested to get back to the matter of the ECP\u2019s jurisdiction. \u201cEjecting someone from the assembly is not a trivial action, so every aspect will have to be looked at,\u201d he said. During the hearing, Bazai\u2019s lawyer referred to the decision regarding the reserved seats case. \u201cThey now say an amendment has been made,\u201d Justice Abbasi said, referring to tweaks made to Elections Act, which some said was aimed at circumventing the SC\u2019s reserved seats verdict. Justice Shah mused whether the reserved seats verdict had been implemented. \u201cCan you rely on the reserved seats verdict in this case?\u201d Justice Malik wondered. \u201cWas Adil Bazai on the list of 81 members in the reserved seats case?\u201d The court recalled that it was told the ECP cannot issue a declaration. \u201cThe court was told which party the candidate belongs to, determining this is the responsibility of the civil court.\u201d The court issued notices to all parties, including the ECP. The hearing was adjourned till December 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Supreme Court on Monday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s (ECP) decision to disqualify PML-N lawmaker Adil Bazai. In October, the National Assembly Secretariat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}