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Friday March 29, 2024

CEC ‘slept’ through polling day!

By Agencies
August 08, 2018

By Sohail Khan

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar Tuesday said he called Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (R) Sardar Muhammad Raza thrice on polling day but he didn’t pick up and was likely sleeping.

The Supreme Court heard the case regarding the rejection of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Abida Raja’s nomination papers for a reserved seat.

During the hearing, the chief justice exclaimed that he is astonished at the current state of the Election Commission and shared the aforementioned story about the chief election commissioner. He said it was a smooth sailing on the election day, until the Election Commission messed up. The chief justice expressed displeasure over the failure of the Result Transmission System (RTS) during the elections. He said the ECP spent millions on the technology yet it failed. He wondered how the Election Commission is being run.

The chief justice, while allowing the petitioner to contest on reserved seats, said Raja had requested a vote transfer on April 23 but the ECP did not do anything in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in a suo motu case directed the management of Shaheen Air to pay monetary compensation to 214 passengers who were left stranded in China for a week after their flight was abruptly cancelled following a payment dispute between the airline and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the case.

The apex court had last week ordered the airline to ensure all stranded passengers were flown back home by Monday and compensated fairly. After remaining stuck at the airport in the Chinese port city of Guangzhou since July 29, the passengers were finally brought back home via a Shaheen Air flight on Monday. The passengers were said to have faced immense difficulties amid the blame game between the CAA and Shaheen Air, with a few also reported to have fallen sick as they waited to return home.

During the hearing, the court observed that the passengers had suffered unusual mental strain by being stranded for so many days at the airport, and ordered the airline to pay monetary compensation to all the affected passengers.

In pursuance of court’s order, Chief Executive Shaheen Air appeared before the court and submitted that the management could pay Rs5 million in compensation and asked the court to determine an amount for the purpose.

Justice Saqib Nisar remarked that the airline should pay Rs0.1 million to each passenger who went through the ordeal to which the Shaheen Air CEO responded that he would consult with the finance department, and blamed the CAA for the fiasco. He further informed the bench that the airline had borne passengers’ expenses.

The court then directed to inform by August 20 as to how much money the airline would be paying to the passengers in compensation.

The court also instructed the CEO to inform it in writing his dispute with the CAA and adjourned the hearing until August 20.

In another suo motu case, the Supreme Court allowed the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to hire staff for Haj operations.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar heard the case regarding appointment of head of PIA. The PIA labour union office bearers were also present. The chief justice asked the labour union to allow the PIA to work smoothly and don’t interfere in the administration business.

The PIA labour union representatives were of the view that they are working for the betterment of the airline and for this cause they are with the court.

The chief justice ordered the high courts to give their decision regarding the appointment of Musharraf Rasool as PIA head within two weeks and order the PIA to provide all the audit record to Auditor General of Pakistan. The chief justice remarked that Haj operation should not be affected by any reason.