The Supreme Court of Pakistan will resume hearing of the elections case tomorrow at 11:30 am. The court has issued a verdict of its previous hearing, it has said, “Verdict directing ECP to hold Punjab polls on May 14 remained unchanged.”
In the question of conducting the country’s general elections on a single day, the Supreme Court has issued a written ruling of its April 27 hearing of the case.
A three page order of the Supreme Court hearing has been issued. According to the ruling, Farooq Naik briefed the court on the Chairman Senate’s role, while the Attorney General informed the court regarding connections between the government and the opposition.
The written ruling states that the political parties’ efforts to negotiate are their own, and that the Supreme Court’s directive to hold elections on May 14 is still in place.
It also said that the Supreme Court has not instructed the political parties to hold discussions.
As you may remember, the Chief Justice stated during the previous hearing that the court could not compel discussions and that political parties should come together to support the constitution if it was their goal to do so.
The Chief Justice said that there was no court order regarding negotiations but only a recommendation, and that everything would carry on as usual if there is no agreement to preserve the national interest and the Constitution.
Three rounds of negotiations between the government and the PTI then took place. There was no agreement reached on the election date during these negotiations, but it was decided that elections should be held on the same day nationwide.
The Supreme Court yesterday received a report on the negotiations from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, following which the case hearing was scheduled for Friday at 11:30 am.
