Islamabad:
Ever since the passage of the 26th constitutional amendment, Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) has found itself in hostile judicial waters and struggles to secure meaningful relief from the country’s overall courts.
The party, whose founder and boss Imran Khan has been imprisoned for over two years, continues to ask the judiciary about hearings about his cases. However, progress remains slow as PTI’s petitions hang insoluble.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has once again moved the Supreme Court and is seeking directions for the authorities to arrange his meeting with the imprisoned cartridge-in-the-chief of the party in Adiala Prison.
The appeal is not Gandapur’s first attempt to meet Imran. In June he filed a similar petition that the SC registrar’s office returned. An appeal to these objections in the chamber is still pending.
On June 25, Gandapur appeared in courtroom # 1, where justice sewed Mansoor Ali Shah was heading to the bench in the absence of Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, who was in Lahore.
When Gandapur requested that his plea for a meeting with Khan be entertained, arguing that it was necessary to discuss the provincial budget, Justice Shah advised him to turn to CJP or the Justice Secretary’s office.
The renewed petition came after IMRAN’s statement on Tuesday, where he instructed Gandapur to formally apply for a SC permit for such a meeting.
“Earlier, during the budget process, no meetings or consultation took place with me. Ali Amin has to come and map me on governance, law and order and other important provincial affairs. For this, efforts must be made on each forum, including the Supreme Court,” read a statement issued on behalf of Imran Khan in his social media account.
Currently, the constitutional bench can only take questions of public interest. Since June 27, however, it has not held a single hearing. Meanwhile, dozens remain of PTI’s constitutional petitions pending.
Party Insiders admit that PTI’s legal team is also reluctant to pursue these cases until the fate of petitions challenging the 26th amendment is decided.
So far, the constitutional bench has passed three decisions that have severely weakened PTI’s legal position. First, while exercising its review of jurisdiction, it overturned a former SC judgment entitled to PTI to reserved seats. Secondly, it approved the trial against PTI activists in military courts.
Third, it maintained the transfer of judges from various high courts to Islamabad High Court (IHC), where PTI has struggled to get relief. Imran Khan had also challenged the transfer of judges.
At IHC, since March, petitions remain filed by Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi, who is seeking suspension of their judgments in the al-Qadir Trust case, despite repeated applications for an early consultation.
PTI also complains that, despite IHC directions, the prison authorities continue to limit meetings between Imran Khan and both party leaders and family members. On Tuesday, after three months, PTI’s Secretary General and members of Imran Khan’s family were finally allowed to meet him.
During a separate meeting with his legal team, Imran Khan expressed disappointment with the justice of the judiciary.
He said, “After the 26th constitutional amendment, the judiciary has become completely inferior. These judges without conscience do not take action against human rights violations.”
Like SC and IHC, PTI has also been subject to setbacks in Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding cases on May 9.
LHC has made it clear that criminal sentences must surrender before their appeals against conviction can be heard. Meanwhile, the Election Commission in Pakistan (ECP), who traded with haste, did not have convicted MNAs and issued the schedule for election.
In contrast, Peshawar High Court (PHC) has withheld ECP from holding elections in certain constituencies and has even stopped the process of nominating opposition leaders in both parliamentary houses.
The divergence in the approach between the two high courts has given rise to debate.
Despite PTI’s complaints, a three-judgment of SC led by CJP Afridi recently awarded Imran Khan-Caution in eight cases linked to the 9 May events.
Meanwhile, observers notice that it is also a fact that PTI historically ensured more relief from the judiciary compared to rival political parties, especially before the former CJP Qazi Faez Isa.
Imran Khan was even declared “Sadiq and Ameen” by SC during the former CJP Saqib Nisar, while Nawaz Sharif on the other hand was disqualified in accordance with Article 62 (2) of the Constitution. 1 (f).
