MUZAFFARABAD: A larger bench of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Friday reserved its judgment on a petition about the appointment of AJK chief election commissioner (CEC).

At the outset of the hearing by the bench, headed by Justice M Tabassum Aftab Alvi and comprising Justice Chaudhry Jehandad Khan, Justice Azhar Saleem Babar and Justice Mohammad Shiraz Kiani, the counsel for the petitioners defended all the points listed in the petition filed by two PML-N legislators on Dec 31.

When the counsel for the respondents - the AJK president, government, legislative assembly and law department - referred to a case law pertaining to amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, Justice Alvi observed that the case of the petitioners’ counsel was that a lacuna in a constitutional provision could not be filled by promulgating an ordinance (sub-constitutional legislation) but by amending the Constitution.

The counsel for the respondents was unable to address the observation.

When Justice Babar asked the counsel for the respondents to explain his position on the contention that only a CEC appointed under Section 50 of the Interim Constitution Act was competent to hold elections to the AJK Assembly and the AJK Council, the latter accepted the position.

The emphasis of the respondents’ counsel was that the petitioners were not aggrieved and instead they had gotten frustrated after the opinion of the AJK Supreme Court on a presidential reference in favour of the AJK government.

The petitioners’ counsel said the impugned ordinance, promulgated a day after the opinion of the apex court, had infringed upon their fundamental rights because they wanted the forthcoming elections to be conducted by a CEC appointed under the Constitution and not under a piece of subordinate legislation.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2016