KARACHI: The unusual speed and the way the Supreme Court on Friday set aside a Lahore High Court (LHC) stay order, which could potentially have delayed the elections set for Feb 8, raised eyebrows, particularly since the apex court had not reportedly received an official copy of the high court’s order and instead relied on a version provided by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The development came after the LHC chief justice had formed a full bench earlier in the day to take up PTI’s petition challenging the appointment of bureaucrats as returning officers for regular hearings.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, seemingly aware of the optics of the Supreme Court actions, himself observed during Friday’s proceedings that the court usually never suspends high court orders in such a manner.

However, he rationalised this action by highlighting that the LHC’s Dec 13 order seemed to be in direct conflict with the Supreme Court’s Nov 3 verdict, in which the top court set the Feb 8 election date in stone after a consensus had been reached between President Dr Arif Alvi and Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja during a meeting the previous day.

During the hearing on Nov 3, CJP Isa also cautioned that if anybody, including the media, tried to create doubts about the holding of elections, they would be indulging in the violation of the Constitution.

On Friday, the Supreme Court also viewed the LHC’s stay order as a hurdle to the ECP in performing its main constitutional duty: holding elections on time.

Legal experts who spoke to Dawn about the controversy also largely supported the Supreme Court’s move.

Senior counsel Akhtar Hussain said the apex court could intervene and suspend any interim order of high courts if it was passed without jurisdiction. He said the LHC order was without jurisdiction as it could not pass an order about the returning officers (ROs) of all provinces while the apex court had already settled the issue of elections.

The LHC’s bench that passed the order must have been aware that the Election Commission has appointed ROs from the bureaucracy after the judiciary, including the LHC chief justice, has declined the proposal to appoint judicial officers as ROs, Mr Hussain said.

Advocate Shoukat Hayat also supported the Supreme Court for suspending the LHC order and said that the Constitution was very clear about holding general elections and that further delay in polls would create chaos and disappointment among the public.

He said there were constitutional provisions to hold timely elections and the polls could not be delayed anymore under the present circumstances.

Haider Imam Rizvi also said that there were several cases in which the Supreme Court had suspended the interim orders of the high courts.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2023