While commenting on the Supreme Court verdict in its election date suo motu case, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar said he believed that the petitions had been rejected by a 4-3 majority. The federal minister said this while speaking to a private TV channel regarding the apex court’s verdict that has directed the president and the concerned governor to fix suitable dates for the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respectively. Tarar said he could not comment on the verdict as law minister since he had not received the copy and discussed the same with the federal cabinet. “However, as a lawyer, I am of the view that these petitions have been dismissed with a 4-3 majority, as on February 23 when the case was first heard and Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Yahya Afridi had clearly stated that these are not maintainable.”
The minister maintained that the suo motu notice taken under Article 184(3) doesn’t qualify as this matter was already pending before the high court in KP and Punjab. “Two more judges said that the petitions were not maintainable, so in my opinion, it’s a 4-3 verdict.” He referred to the SC verdict in the Panama case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif when a split verdict of a five-member bench was later merged as a 5-0 verdict. This issue, Tarar said, should now be adjudicated in respective high courts.
