ISLAMABAD: Against the backdrop of rumours doing the rounds in private gatherings about perceived delay in holding of general elections, the attention of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has been invited to guard against such attempts by involving the judiciary.

“It is not inconceivable that after dissolution of the assemblies on completion of their term and appointment of the interim governments, some political parties and politicians, not very hopeful of securing significant results in the general elections 2018, may invoke judicial process seeking postponement of the general elections on one pretext or the other,” feared Raheel Kamran Sheikh, a senior member of the 23-man council, in a letter he addressed to the PBC members, including its Vice Chairman Kamran Murtaza.

The PBC is the supervisory body of the legal fraternity.

Given the propensity to invoke the judicial process for the settlement of disputes which were essentially of political nature, the letter apprehended, it was possible that some parties or habitual petitioners might move a petition either in the Supreme Court or the high courts, seeking the enhancement of the term of the caretaker government that would be established during the interregnum period to conduct the general elections.

When the opinion of PBC Vice Chairman Kamran Murtaza was sought, he appreciated the idea put forth by Mr Sheikh and said he would definitely ask other members to discuss the same and adopt a resolution in this regard.

“I believe and appreciate whatever apprehensions have been expressed by the member,” Mr Murtaza said, adding that the political parties should have mercy on the nation and avoid resorting to knocking at the doors of the judiciary.

It was not in the interest of the country that the political parties raise the political temperature only to embarrass their political opponents by instituting petitions every now and then, he cautioned.

It was time, the vice chairman said, that the rules of the game should be settled once and for all and whichever political party formed a government in future after the July general elections, their constitutional term should not be thwarted through sit-ins and protest, etc.

“We should not utilise all our energies in finding shortcomings of others instead join hands for the development of the country,” he said.

In his letter, Raheel Kamran Sheikh also highlighted the need that the council should not become part of any such move or attempt on the part of the parties seeking resolution of political disputes by invoking the jurisdiction of the courts.

Postponements of the general elections are not only constitutional deviations but violative of fundamental rights of the citizens which undermine the democratic process. Therefore, the apex bar should resolve to demand not only that the general elections 2018 must be held on time and should not at all be postponed on any pretext whatsoever, Mr Sheikh emphasised.

The council must further resolve to vehemently oppose any request made to the judiciary for the postponement of the general elections 2018 on any ground whatsoever, he suggested.

Only a couple of judges were now left in the judiciary who took the oath under the first Provisional Constitution Order issued during dictatorial regime of General Pervez Musharraf and thereafter refused to take the oath when another PCO was issued on Nov 3, 2007, resulting in their unconstitutional removal, etc, followed by the movement for the restoration of the judiciary, he said.

Therefore, any criticism by the ruling political party in 2017-18 labelling them as PCO judges was also not well motivated for such judges who established their independence in 2007, the letter said.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2018