SC to hear Senate elections' references on Monday

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) has constituted a five-judge larger bench to commence the hearing on a presidential reference seeking the court’s opinion whether ‘open ballot’ for Senate elections would help acknowledge the respect of choice and desire of the citizen voters on Monday (January 11).

The five-member larger bench would be headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising of Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Yahya Afridi.

Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan would represent President Dr Arif Alvi.

On December 23, President Arif Alvi, after approving the proposal of the prime minister, had filed a 11-page reference in the Supreme Court under Article 186 of the Constitution relating to the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and sought its opinion on holding the upcoming elections for the upper house of the Parliament through open ballot and show of hands.

On Saturday (January 16), the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) opposed the presidential reference while the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa backed presidential reference, seeking guidance from the Supreme Court on the Federal government’s plan to amend the Election Act 2017 through an ordinance to allow the use of open-ballot at the upcoming Senate elections.