Lawmakers can’t campaign in by-polls: SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside two orders of the Lahore High Court (LHC) that allowed members of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies to campaign in their constituencies for the upcoming local government elections.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, referred the case to the LHC with the direction to club both the petitions as the issue involved was the same in both the petitions.
The court directed the registrar of the LHC to fix the case before a bench next week, while the high court was also directed to decide the matter within one month.
Appearing on notice, Raja Ibrahim Satti, advocate, counsel for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), submitted before the court that the high court judges had ignored the apex court’s orders.
The LHC had suspended the ECP’s May 7 notification which barred the MNAs/MPAs from entering their constituencies for the by-polls and the local government elections.On September 8, the apex court hearing the ECP’s May 25 plea had suspended the LHC’s order and restored the commission’s code of conduct.
Despite the SC’s order, the high court on September 22 again declared the ECP’s notification, which had barred members of the national and provincial assemblies from participating in election campaigns for the by-elections, null and void.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on October 9 had filed a statement before the Supreme Court and contended that arraying the members of the National Assembly and provincial assembly with the prime minister, chief minister and ministers in the notification was clearly malafide on the part of the ECP. It was further submitted that the MNAs and MPAs do not hold any official or government position, therefore, they could not fall in the category of those who are in power like the PM and CM.
The statement alleged that the ECP, while issuing the notification, had Imran Khan in mind because he was perhaps the only MNA having no government position and would matter the most with the voters in the by-elections because of his immense popularity.