SC sets aside LHC ruling nullifying vote recount in three NA seats

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday annulled the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) verdict that nullified a vote recount in three National Assembly constituencies won by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates and upheld the order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to this effect.

The 2-1 majority reserved verdict was announced by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa in response to the petitions filed by the PML-N leaders.However, Justice Aqeel Abbasi dissented with the decision in favour of PML-N candidates Azhar Qayyum Nahra, Abdul Rehman Kanju and Zulfikar Ahmed.

“I am of the opinion that the impugned judgments/orders passed by the LHC in the aforesaid Writ Petitions do not suffer from any factual error or legal infirmity, therefore, do not require any interference by this Court, under Article 185(3) of the Constitution. Accordingly, the above civil petitions are dismissed and leave to appeal refused,” he wrote.

The development came after the three PML-N leaders, who had lost election from their respective constituencies, had requested for the recounting of votes after which the ECP declared them winners.

However, the electoral body’s decision was challenged by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the LHC which, in April, overturned the ECP’s decision.The PML-N candidates then approached the Supreme Court against the verdict given by the LHC. Following this, the three-member bench reinstated them as MNAs and declared LHC’s decision null and void.

The request for a recount was made in the constituencies of NA-154 (Lodhran), NA-81 (Gujranwala), and NA-79 (Gujranwala). Meanwhile, thePakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has called for the issuance of a notification regarding the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP).

“The PTI demands notification regarding the next CJP be issued,” PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said while talking to the media along with other party leaders on Monday.“We want to make it abundantly clear that the extension [in the term of the incumbent CJP] is entirely inadmissible.” The PTI’s demand came as Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar clarified last month that Chief Justice Faez Isa was not interested in his extension.

Speaking to Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath on July 13, the law minister had said CJP Isa had told him [Tarar] in the presence of the attorney general that rumours had been circulating about his [Isa’s] extension, and that even if the rumours were true, he was not interested.

The former ruling party’s demand regarding the notification of the next top judge is not absolutely unwarranted as the incumbent CJP’s name came to the fore on June 21 last year almost over two months before he took oath of his office on September 17, 2023.

The incumbent chief justice, Pakistan’s 29th CJP, is slated to retire from the top judicial post on October 25 this year. Talking to media on Monday, Gohar also expressed reservation over the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld the ECP’s verdict regarding the recount in the National Assembly seats, giving the PML-N much-needed relief.

“The members of the National Assembly (MNAs) have taken oath and reversing them stands in contradiction to justice,” he said, adding: “The Supreme Court’s verdict on the three seats is against what justice requires.”

The PTI chief announced that the party would file a review petition against the ruling as the party had reservations over the verdict.