ISLAMABAD, February 7 2012: The Supreme Court on Monday suspended the membership of 28 legislators elected in by-elections since adoption of 18th Amendment in April 2009 for failure to reconstitute the Election Commission in accordance with the amendment.Among those whose membership has been suspended are two federal ministers, three senators, nine members of National Assembly and the rest belonging to the fou provincial assemblies. The ministers include Hafeez Shaikh (finance) and Dr. Asim (Petroleum and Gas). Ahmed Mujtaba Gilani, (brother of Premier Yousaf Raza Gilani) of Punjab assembly and Jamshed Dasti of National Assembly have also been suspended. Of the 28 affected members, eight belong to the Pakistan People’s Party, seven Pakistan Muslim League-N and three Muthidda Qaumi Momenent. A four-member bench of the court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had earlier allowed till February 6 for providing constitutional cover to the by-elections through another amendment. The government has initiated 20h Amendment but is still struggling to achieve a consensus for its passage. The Election Commission remained incomplete till late last year. The opposition PML-N wants to add some amendments to ensure an independent commission and a neutral interim government to oversee the next general elections. The bench stopped short of annulling the by-elections of the 28 legislators affected by its ruling but directed that their membership would remain suspended till the passage of a required amendment.
The court order was announced during the hearing of a petition submitted by Imran Khan seeking a stay on holding of by-elections to six seats scheduled for February 26. Khan maintained that no fair election could be held until 37 million bogus votes detected in the electoral lists were removed and replaced by genuine names.
No comments:
Post a Comment