LAHORE: Maulana Fazlur Rehman, president of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), said Saturday the ruling alliance has no trust in the Supreme Court’s three-judge bench hearing the election delay case.
“We have no faith in this court. PDM doesn’t trust the bench comprising these three judges,” asserts Fazl, who is also the chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.
The PDM president expressed his distrust after the ruling alliance — comprising 13 political parties — decided to boycott the said bench in a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Lahore today where Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif also backed their decision.
During the presser, Fazl added that the chief justice and the other two judges should morally recuse themselves from this case. The PDM president alleged that a few judges want to provide relief to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
He further alleged that two major culprits of rigging are on the loose and no notice is being taken against them and said that elections should take place on the same day across the country to take place to keep the country united.
“Imran Khan wants divisions within institutions,” Fazl said, highlighting the impact of the PTI chief’s plea in the apex court.
Moreover, according to a statement issued later, the meeting of the heads of the component parties of the PDM demanded that elections should be held in the country at the same time.
“Holding transparent and impartial elections is a fundamental constitutional requirement and deviation from it will push the country into political crisis,” read a declaration issued by the PDM.
Matters relating to the country’s overall situation, the alliance’s future strategy and other issues were discussed in the meeting.
The ruling alliance also expressed distrust over the three-member bench of the SC hearing the PTI’s petition against the postponement of elections in Punjab.
The meeting demanded that the ongoing proceedings of the court in the case should be terminated by accepting the top court’s 4-3 verdict.
It further said that an SC bench headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa had ordered to stop the hearing of all the cases filed under Article 184(3).
“Contradictory verdicts by the courts have created an impracticable and complicated situation,” the statement added.
The PDM urged the top judge to listen to the dissenting voices from the benches of the SC and form a full court bench on the petition to end the impression of a “one-man show”.
The meeting cited the three-judge bench’s verdict in connection with Article 63 (A) — “through which the Constitution was rewritten” — the main reason behind the ongoing political instability in the country.
The impression that the chief justice and some other judges carry out a special discriminatory attitude towards the PTI should be eliminated, the meeting maintained.
