Islamabad (HRNW) The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government in the centre has demanded Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial step down as the top judge after Supreme Court Justice Athar Minallah’s hard-hitting note that noted the suo motu on the delay in holding polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab was dismissed 4-3.
In her press conference, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said: “Chief justice has now become controversial. Therefore, the chief justice should resign.”
The crisis persists as the demand comes a day after the National Assembly passed a resolution rejecting the three-member Supreme Court bench’s “minority” verdict on the Punjab elections and made it binding on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet not to implement the decision.
Justice Minallah was among the judges who rejected the suo motu notice taken by the CJP regarding the delay in polls in KP and Punjab on the advice of an SC bench hearing the Ghulam Mehmood Dogar case.
CJP Bandial had formed a nine-member bench to hear the suo motu case. However, two of the nine judges recused themselves from the case, while four — Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Yahya Afridi, and Justice Minallah — had dismissed the case.
In the note, Justice Minallah reiterated that the “manner and mode” in which these proceedings were initiated had “unnecessarily” exposed the court to political controversies.
Aside from eroding public confidence, the assumption of suo motu may “raise concerns in the mind of an informed outside observer,” he explained, adding that this would also prejudice the rights of litigants whose cases are pending.