ISLAMABAD: Despite differences in interpretation, the federal government has said it will not appeal the Supreme Court’s Wednesday verdict that general elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces be held within 90 days of the dissolution of their legislative assemblies, rising hopes of some political stability in the cash-strapped South Asian nation on the brink of default.
Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party dissolved the KP provincial assembly in January, while the chief minister of PTI’s allied party, the PMLQ, dissolved the Punjab assembly the same month, with both moves aimed at forcing the federal government to announce early national elections.
However, the caretaker governors of both provinces declined to give dates for fresh elections and referred the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). As the deadlock continued, the president unilaterally announced polls in both provinces on April 9.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan intervened last week, taking suo motu notice of the situation and on Wednesday ruled that “elections within 90 days after the dissolution of an assembly are mandatory.”
"The federal government will definitely accept the Supreme Court decision," interior minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters on Wednesday evening. "The Supreme Court decision is constitutionally binding on the federal government.”
However, he said there was “disagreement” within the verdict.
“At this stage, the majority 4-3 decision has declared the petitions seeking the election dates ahead of time,” Sanaullah said, adding that the majority decision was also against the top court's decision to take a suo motu in the matter.
The controversy arose on Wednesday afternoon when, commenting on the verdict, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said petitions for the court to decide on election dates had been rejected by a 4-3 majority.
He was referring to the fact that the five-member bench that heard the case on Wednesday was originally a nine-member bench from which four judges recused themselves. And even before the recusation, two of the judges had objected to whether the Supreme Court could hear the case to begin with.
Tarar viewed Wednesday's decision by the five-member bench as a dismissal of petitions seeking election dates from the court since four of the judges in the original bench had said these pleas were not maintainable.
He referred to a past case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif when a split verdict of a five-member bench was later merged as a 5-0 verdict.
The issue, Tarar had said, should now be adjudicated in respective high courts.