“Court cannot be subjected to such mockery,” says top judge while questioning if plea was filed by petitioner himself
ISLAMABAD: Expressing dismay over the withdrawal of the plea seeking annulment of the February 8 elections, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Monday ordered the authorities to find the complainant and present him before the Supreme Court at the next hearing.
Stressing that the top court cannot be subjected to such mockery, CJP Isa directed the authorities to “find and present the complainant before the court” stressing that the SC will hear this case.
The top judge’s remarks come as a three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) led by the chief justice and comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, conducted the hearing on Brig (retd) Ali Khan’s petition seeking re-elections over the issue of alleged rigging in the polls.
The development comes in the backdrop of concerns raised by several political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) who have expressed dissatisfaction over the transparency of the general elections.
Doubts over the polls were further exacerbated by the revelations made by now-former Rawalpindi commissioner Liaqat Chatha, who on Saturday, tendered his resignation out of “guilty conscience” for abetting large-scale electoral rigging in the garrison city further raising the political mercury in the country.
The Rawalpindi Division comprises 13 National Assembly seats, on which 11 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates were successful, while the rest were secured by an independent candidate and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The division also has 27 provincial seats — on which PML-N was successful on 15 and 11 independents.
