LAHORE, April 15: A Lahore High Court full bench directed on Monday the Excise and Taxation Department, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Wasa and other utility departments to give to the Election Commission of Pakistan within 24 hours the record of candidates in electronic form.

Hearing several identical petitions about the implementation of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution, the bench directed the Cooperative Department secretary to ensure presence of a responsible officer along with record of cooperative society’s defaulters.

Earlier, an Election Commission representative presented the record of candidates received by the aforementioned departments in manual form.

Observing a difficulty in scrutinising the manual record, the bench ordered the departments concerned to supply the Election Commission the same data in electronic form and adjourned hearing for Tuesday (today).

During the Monday’s hearing, Punjab Advocate General Shahid Karim also appeared and advanced his initial arguments about the enforcement of Articles 62 and 63.

He said they were the most debatable provisions in the Constitution. He said the court should not go for their interpretation as general but the let the courts decide matters pertained to these articles on an individual basis.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan heads the full bench along with Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi.