Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday chaired a meeting of the coalition partners to come up with a solid stance of the government regarding decision of the Supreme Court on elections in Punjab.
Chairing a meeting of the heads of the coalition parties in Islamabad, he said we need to take solid decisions in view of the ongoing mockery of the Constitution and the law.
He thanked former President Asif Ali Zardari, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and BNP Chief Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal for attending the meeting via video link.
Shehbaz Sharif further said that the three-member bench of the apex court rejected our request for constituting a full court bench to hear this matter. He said the three-member bench also ignored the majority decision of 4-3 as well as it did not say anything about the judges, who had recused themselves from this case. Besides, political parties’ plea to become party in this matter was not given any weightage.
Highlighting salient points of the yesterday’s decision of the three-member bench, the Prime Minister said the court orders have bound the government to provide the required funding to the Election Commission of Pakistan by 10th of this month and the ECP will have to furnish a report to the apex court in this regard by 11th of this month. He said the Federal Government has been asked to provide security cover of military and Rangers for elections and the ECP will submit a report by 17th of this month in this respect.
Shehbaz Sharif further said that the three-member bench, while on the other hand, asked to approach the relevant forum for elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Prime Minister said that this issue was discussed in detail by the cabinet yesterday and now we all are here to further deliberate on this matter.
