Former KP Speaker and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf senior member Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani went to the Supreme Court on Monday to request contempt proceedings against Governor Haji Ghulam Ali for allegedly disobeying the court’s March 1 ruling that ordered him to provide a date for the province’s elections.
Ghani requested in a petition that the Supreme Court order President Dr. Arif Alvi or another “appropriate functionary” to choose the election date.
The petitioner claimed that the governor disobeyed the ruling by delaying the announcement of the election date and added that under Article 204 of the Constitution when to read in conjunction with Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 and Order 27 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980, contempt proceedings may be brought.
He claimed that the governor had been instigating and spreading, under various pretexts, questions, qualms, anxieties, and concerns about holding elections within the 90-day window that is allowed by the constitution.
The petitioner said that the governor had been outspoken in his media comments, insisting that he did not expect elections to take place within the constitutional timetable.
The petitioner referred to the 2012 contempt case against former prime minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, in which the court ruled that exalted office holders including the president, prime minister, and governor—need to exercise greater restraint because of their executive office and that nothing in the constitution prevents bringing legal action against them.
According to the petition, Article 25(1) states that all people are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law and that the Constitution makes no mention of exceptions to the obligations it imposes.
