The Supreme Court (SC) is set to deliver its reserved verdict on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) appeal in the Punjab election tribunals case on Monday, September 30. A five-member bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, had reserved the judgment earlier this week.
The bench includes Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi. The SC also directed the ECP to activate election tribunals to handle petitions related to the nationwide polls scheduled for February 8.
The case concerns the authority to form election tribunals, a matter that has been a source of dispute between the Lahore High Court (LHC) and the ECP for several months. The issue arose when, on February 14, the ECP requested the LHC to nominate judges for the tribunals.
The then LHC chief justice initially appointed two judges on February 20, followed by another six on April 14. Of these, two were officially notified by the ECP on April 26. However, the ECP later raised concerns over the appointment of additional judges for the Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur tribunals.
The LHC chief justice rejected these objections, and the high court’s registrar directed the ECP to notify all the nominated judges. On May 29, Justice Shahid Karim ordered the ECP to appoint the remaining judges nominated by the LHC CJ, warning that the notification would be considered issued if the ECP failed to act.
The ECP refused to comply, arguing that appointing the tribunals without mutual consultation would violate Section 140(3) of the Elections Act. Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad of the LHC eventually established eight tribunals for cases related to the February 8 elections, a decision which the ECP contested in the Supreme Court.
This conflict stems from amendments to the Election Act of 2017 regarding which judges are eligible to serve on election tribunals. President Asif Ali Zardari approved the Election (Amendment) Bill 2024 on July 9, which empowered the ECP to appoint retired high court judges without consulting the respective chief justices.
On July 4, the Supreme Court suspended both the LHC’s order to form additional tribunals and the ECP’s April 26 notification, bringing the matter to the apex court for resolution.
