The Islamabad High Court (IC) suspended on Monday the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order to change the Islamabad Election Tribunal and reinstated the tribunal comprising Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri.
The court heard PTI’s petition against the ongoing proceedings related to the Election Amendment Ordinance and the change of tribunal in the ECP.
Chief Justice Aamer Farooq presided over the case and issued a contempt of court notice to PML-N Member National Assembly (MNA) Anjum Aqeel Khan.
IHC CJ asked the Additional Attorney General (AAG) how he would defend this ordinance and also inquired about the urgency under which the ordinance was issued over night. Justice Aamer remarked “Abolish the parliament and run the government through ordinances, you people have set up an ordinance factory, one is the Wah factory and the other is an ordinance factory, Wah factory makes weapons and you make ordinances. What was the bias against the judge that the election commission saw?”
The court further inquired whether Anjum Aqeelvhad requested the ECP to change the tribunal. CJ Farooq remarked, “Please explain to me what is written, what is the meaning of these words, what is prejudice?” Anjum apologized to the judge stating “I admit that my English is weak, this is a legal language. I signed the judges are respectful to us, this is my mistake, I signed without reading these words. I made an application for transfer of the case.” The judge remarked to Anjum “They were not accepting your recommendation, is that why you wanted to change them?”
“I did not recommend it,” replied Anjum. CJ Aamer stated to Anjum that his petition was about the judge being biased. “You are a parliamentarian, you have to legislate, why did you accuse the judge?” Aamer Farooq added. Anjum replied that there was a mistake in his choice of words and was not intentional.
Following these remarks, the IHC suspended the ECP’s order to change the Islamabad Election Tribunal and reinstated the tribunal comprising Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri. The court issued a contempt of court notice to Anjum Aqeel and adjourned the hearing till July 9. In the last hearing also, CJ Farooq expressed his anger over the change of the Election Tribunal in Islamabad.
