Yesterday, Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial, in the hearing of the case related to the same day election across the country, showed leniency in his remarks. It gave an opportunity to the donors to negotiate and settle the dispute regarding the date of general elections.
PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi tried to provoke the Chief Justice by referring to the tone adopted by the Parliament against the three-member bench on Wednesday, but the Chief Justice advised Shah Mehmood Qureshi to Ignore it and call it politics.
The Chief Justice also appeared to be backing away from the Supreme Court’s previous stance in which it had set a time limit for negotiations between politicians. The time frame will not be fixed either.
The Chief Justice expressed hope that the political parties will negotiate with each other and settle the dispute. The Chief Justice suggested Shah Mehmood Qureshi to show restraint on the issues of the negotiation process. Earlier, the PTI leader complained that PDM has not contacted the PTI people for negotiations.
He said that the court provided an opportunity to the political parties in the national interest, but PTI has not been approached by the government so far. On this, the Chief Justice asked them to show restraint regarding the negotiations.During the last few months, the Chief Justice was a victim of controversies inside and outside the Supreme Court. He was not only criticized by many politicians, parliament and media because of his taking notice of the Punjab election, forming a bench of like-minded judges to decide political cases in favor of a political party. Some fellow judges were also critical.
The mood of the court on Thursday was conciliatory. During the hearing of the case, the Chief Justice said that the court will issue an appropriate order. The decision had not been issued by the time this news was filed. The court did not announce the next date of hearing. A day before the hearing of the landmark case in the Supreme Court, members of the ruling party in the National Assembly termed the court’s latest verdict shocking and appalling and suggested the Speaker refer the matter to the Privileges Committee of the House.
It was said that the Supreme Court had violated the prerogative of the House by saying that the decision of the Parliament should not be accepted. Bilawal Bhutto said that how can the Supreme Court order the Prime Minister and us to violate the Constitution and not obey the decision of the Parliament.
He said that the recent decision of the Supreme Court is shocking and frightening. These people are saying that you should ignore the decision of the Parliament and accept the minority order of the Supreme Court. On the same day, the Speaker wrote to the Chief Justice and other judges and pointed out that the Constitutional Courts have the power to interpret the Constitution, but they do not have the power to rewrite the Constitution. They further said that it is not the power of the Supreme Court to order the release of funds by ignoring the provisions of the Constitution, the judges have taken an oath to defend and protect the Constitution. In the letter, he said that the National Assembly believes that the power rests with the National Assembly, which consists of representatives directly elected by the people of Pakistan.