The Supreme Court Monday stayed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) order of revoking PML-N lawmaker Adil Bazai’s National Assembly seat.
The National Assembly Secretariat filed a request with ECP to remove Bazai in October. Despite appearing to be an official PML-N member, Bazai has regularly been viewed as speaking out against the government from opposition benches which has made him quite an enigmatic politician. It is still not known which party turned out to vote for him during the Feb 8 general election. According to the National Assembly, Bazai was fighting from Quetta’s NA-262.
November 12th the ECP reserved its disposal on reference issued by Bazai to quash. His attorney said that Bazai never joined PML-N and there was a fake affidavit submitted in his name. He asked also for an examination of the document as forensic audit.
On November 21, the ECP disqualified Bazai on “floor crossing” on the basis of two references filed by Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq (NA). The references stated that Bazai had fallen foul of the party’s rules.
This was heard on Monday by a bench of three judges of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Ayesha Malik and Aqeel Abbasi. Bazai’s lawyer, Taimoor Aslam, said ECP did not have to fact-finding enough and did not send Bazai for inquiry. He claimed that the disqualification is under Article 63A of the Constitution
In a similar vein, Justice Malik pointed out that Bazai had submitted two affidavits as his, and it made one wonder if the ECP could probe for fraud under any rubric.
Justice Shah restressed the need to spell out the jurisdiction of ECP in such matters.
The court also took up the issue of whether amendments to the electoral law, and how they are linked to a previous case where reserved seats were quosn o.
When Justice Malik asked if the judgment on reserved seats would be applicable to Bazai’s situation, whether his name appeared on the list of 81 members linked to that calamity?
All parties noticed including ECP and hence proceeding stayed for next hearing on 12th December.
