‘SC 13-member bench should resolve all matters’: Azam Nazeer 

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Law and Justice Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar Thursday said that 13-member full court bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan should resolve all the matters.

The request of political parties and bar councils for full court was rejected. The position of political parties was not heard during the hearing, law minister stated adding that there should not be a situation of conflict between the court and the government.

He said: “If the provincial elections are held first in Punjab, then the National Assembly elections will be affected”.

Azam Nazeer continued that according to the constitution, it is necessary to have caretaker setup to conduct elections transparently. In view of the law and order situation, the dates of the elections were changed in the past as well.

Talking to the international media on Thursday, the Federal Law Minister said: “Government believes that it would have been better if the full court had decided this most important national issue”.

Nazeer added that the federal cabinet expressed its concerns on the decision of the Supreme Court as it was of the opinion that the majority decision should not be changed into a minority decision.

The minister stated: “If the full court is not formed, the political and constitutional crisis will become severe in the country as the court did not make any political party a party in the case and did not hear its stand”.

“On the related petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), a full court was requested from the Supreme Court, which was rejected,” said federal minister.

He said that there was a court order on 184-3 which was first rejected by the circular and then by the 6-member bench. When the verdict came on March 1, our position was that the case got dismissed by 4 against 3.

“Four judges dismissed the petition, two refused to hear the case, both the opinion judges separated themselves from the bench. Two judges openly expressed their opinion on the issue of suo motu,” Tarar further said.

The Law Minister said that the Parliament approved the bill on the Supreme Court's suo motu notice, the petitions are pending in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab high courts, however the Governor of Punjab Baligh-ur-Rehman did not sign the summary sent for the dissolution of the Assembly.

According to the constitution, the Punjab Assembly was automatically dissolved after the prescribed time.

He said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is a powerful and independent institution, the procedure of general elections is fixed according to the constitution.

General elections should be held in the whole country at the same time. According to the constitution, the transparency of elections should bring political stability in the country and not create new conflicts.