ISLAMABAD, March 7: A Supreme Court bench on Friday excused itself from hearing a case of election dispute between candidates of Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Awami National Party for the NA-31, Shangla, after their counsel exchanged hot words in the courtroom and accused each other’s clients of committing malpractices on the polling day.

When the three-member bench headed by Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi started hearing the case, the altercation took place between Senator Wasim Sajjad and Senator Babar Awan, the counsel for PML-Q’s Amir Muqam and ANP’s Sadeedur Rehman, respectively.

Petitioner Amir Muqam has pleaded that the Peshawar High Court’s stay order restraining the Election Commission from announcing the election results of the constituency was unjustified.

Senator Awan alleged that supporters of Mr Muqam had torched result sheets of 20 polling stations and accused his son, who is Shangla’s district nazim, of using government machinery during his father’s election campaign. He said supporters of his client had been threatened of dire consequence.

Senator Awan termed Mr Muqam a ‘turncoat’ and alleged that he had deserted the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) after winning a seat on its ticket in the 2002 elections.

Refuting the allegations, Wasim Sajjad accused activists of PPP and ANP of burning election results to make them controversial and create a justification for the demand of re-polling in the constituency.

Justice Abbasi admonished both sides for breaching the decorum of the court and refused to hear the case. He asked the counsel to resolve their political disputes outside the court.