Islamabad, Feb 19: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday strongly rapped and summoned a retired Army officer after he failed to appear before it during the hearing of his plea seeking the elections to be declared null and void due to alleged rigging. The February 8 elections have been controversial with several serious allegations of widespread rigging to alter the results. Over 10 days after the voting, there was still no clarity on which party would form the government at the Centre.
Though independent candidates backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party won the maximum number of seats in Parliament, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have announced that they will form a coalition government after the February 8 elections resulted in a hung Parliament.
The post-poll alliance by the PML-N and the PPP could mean that PTI will not be able to form the next federal government, prompting Khan’s party to allege that the two rival parties were trying to steal the people’s mandate with the help of the powerful establishment.
As the three-member bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and also comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali took up the plea of Brigadier (retd) Ali Khan, the petitioner did not appear before the court, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“Was the application filed only for publicity? This cannot be allowed. We will not allow the Supreme Court to be used in a wrong manner,” the court observed.
It also noted that the plea was filed on February 12 but was reported in the media beforehand.
The court also noted that when contacted, the petitioner’s phone number was found to be turned off. Subsequently, the apex court issued a notice to the former senior Pakistan Army officer through the defence ministry and adjourned the hearing till February 21.
Independent candidates, who won, will join SIC
Reversing its earlier decision, jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Monday said that the party-backed independent candidates, who won the February 8 elections, will join the rightwing Sunni Ittehad Council.
The party had earlier decided that its members elected to the National Assembly and the Punjab provincial assembly would join Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM), a Shia party, while those elected in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) would become part of Jamaati-e-Islami (JI), which is a hardline Sunni religious party.
The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) is an alliance of Islamic political and religious parties in the Muslim-majority country which represents followers of the school of Sunni Islam.
“Our candidates in the National Assembly, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies will join the Sunni Ittehad Council,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said while addressing a press conference along with leaders of the MWM and SIC. ”
Our candidates in the National Assembly, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies will join the Sunni Ittehad Council,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said while addressing a press conference along with leaders of the MWM and SIC. (PTI)
(PTI)