LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday asked the Attorney General of Pakistan and the Advocate General of Punjab to appear before the court on February 21 on an appeal of Governor Balighur Rehman challenging the decision of a single bench for announcement of election date in the province.
The governor filed the Intra-Court Appeal (ICA) through his principal secretary Barrister Nabeel Awan.
Earlier, the governor’s counsel argued that the single judge failed to consider the provisions of the Constitution and the Election Act 2017 regarding the role of the appellant in announcement of the date for the election.
He said the governor was obliged to appoint a date for the election under the provisions of the article 105 of the Constitution in a situation where he dissolved an assembly.
In the present situation, the counsel said, the Punjab Assembly had not been dissolved by the governor. He, said, the question of announcement of an election date by him did not arise.
He further contended that the single bench ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to fix a date for the election after consultation with the governor. He said this direction was illegal as the governor had not role ascribed to him regarding holding of the general election either in the Constitution or the Election Act 2017.
The counsel also argued that the single judge misconstrued the provisions of Article 129 of the Constitution as the governor despite being the constitutional head of the province was not vested with any authority in relation to the general elections.
He pointed out that the question as to how can the governor be part of the consultative process in relation to the general election had not been answered in the impugned judgment.
He argued that the impugned judgments suffered from gross misinterpretation of the provisions of the Constitution and all other applicable laws.
He, therefore, asked the court to allow the appeal of the governor and set aside the judgment in question.
Justice Jawad Hassan of the LHC had ordered the ECP to immediately announce the date of elections to the Punjab assembly after consultation with the governor, in his capacity as the constitutional head of the province.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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