ISLAMABAD: Explaining why it rejected a set of petitions seeking to declare the 2013 general elections illegal, the Supreme Court on Saturday revealed that the plea raised in the petitions was vague and incapable of enforcement.

“Even some of the prayers made in the constitutional petition are incapable of enforcement on account of their vagueness,” said a 10-page judgment authored by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk.

The verdict follows an Oct 29 short order, whereby a three-judge Supreme Court bench rejected a set of identical petitions that sought the annulment of the general elections, after just a day’s hearing. The petitions were moved by a former Supreme Court judge from Bahawalpur, Mahmood Akhter Shahid Siddiqui; former federal minister Zahid Sarfraz; and, Daud Ghaznavi.

The petitioners had asked the Supreme Court to declare the 2013 general elections illegal on the grounds that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had failed to conduct the elections honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with the law by guarding against corrupt practices.

In one of the prayers, the verdict explained, a direction was sought for appropriate authorities to initiate criminal and departmental action against members of the ECP, but in the absence of specific authorities, no directions could be issued.

The lawyers representing the petitioners during the course of proceedings were also confronted with the question of maintainability; the restrictions contained in Article 225 of the Constitution limit challenges to election results in all other manners, save by way of a petition before an election tribunal, the judgment said.

The lawyers were also asked whether the results of the entire general election for the national and the provincial assemblies could be annulled under any provision of the Constitution or the law.

“Since we were not provided with any assistance on these propositions we refrain from dilating upon them,” the verdict explained.

The judgment pointed out that during the course of his arguments, the court told Advocate Mian Allah Nawaz — counsel for former Justice Mahmood Shahid — that he had not filed any documents in support of the allegations with his petition.

Similarly, Zahid Sarfraz in his petition had only appended a news item from a national daily to support his contentions. But none of the petitions could furnish any document that could be considered grounds for issuing notices to the respondents, namely the government, the ECP, the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR). This deficiency precludes the court from proceeding further with these petitions, the judgment explained.

It was also pointed that the prayer made by the petitioners for declaring the general elections null and void in their entirety would result in the unseating of all members of the national and provincial assemblies, who had not been impleaded in these petitions.

There can be no two opinions that the parliamentarians and members of the provincial assemblies elected in the general elections 2013 were not only proper but necessary parties as they would be directly affected if the prayer made by the petitioners was granted. Even the members of the ECP against whom the petitioners seek criminal and department action have not been impleaded in the petitions, the verdict said.

Published in Dawn December 14th , 2014