Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khan Khosa while hearing a provincial assembly matter Wednesday observed that the apex court would determine in near future that the orders of election supervising officials, including presiding officers (POs) and returning officers (ROs) should be considered as court verdict or not.

The chief justice, heading the bench comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, heard the election matter of Maulvi Muhammad Hanif, a candidate for the Balochistan Assembly.

Advocate Ibrahim Satti, counsel for Hanif, said the returning officer had rejected his candidate’s papers, citing him ‘dishonest’ in his rejection decision.

The CJP remarked that such a thing could happen if wrong statements were submitted by the candidates. He asked the counsel to wait till next elections as it was an old matter and election for the respective constituency had also been held.

He pointed out that the court was considering some different matter while he (counsel) was talking about Article 62(1)f. The matter here was whether the order of a presiding officer and a returning officer should be considered a court order or not, he added.  The apex court, the CJP remarked, would decide the matter in some other case.

Ibrahim Satti said the court had determined in the Allah Dino case that disqualification to contest elections would be for life.  He said the returning officer had issued orders in this case.

Justice Azmat Saeed remarked that the Allah Dino case was filed in the Supreme Court against orders of the high court.