ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim has expressed reservations over the timing of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Asghar Khan case and said he feared it would add to “political polarisation” in the country.

“The court has given the judgment near the elections after keeping the case pending for 16 years,” he said in an interview to BBC Urdu on Monday.

He said the apex court had not made itself controversial but created a new controversy ahead of the general elections. He said he believed that the country would get no benefit from this decision, adding that the time had come to forget the past and move forward.

Justice Ebrahim said everyone had committed mistakes in the past. The Supreme Court validated military takeovers and judges took oath under the PCO (Provisional Constitutional Order).

“We don’t know what happened when Ayub Khan came. We don’t know how Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged. We don’t know what happened during the Ziaul Haq regime. Now is time to forget the past and start a new era,” he said.