ISLAMABAD:
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday submitted additional written arguments in the Supreme Court ahead of the hearing on its review petition against the July 12 verdict regarding reserved seats.
Filed through senior counsel Haris Azmat, the additional submissions argue that the use of Article 187 in the July 12 judgment was inconsistent with settled judicial principles.
The party contended that the SC had exercised its powers under Article 187 in a manner that deviated from established legal norms.
“The Detailed Reasoning in Paragraph No. 117, while granting relief to the PTI, has erroneously relied on Article 187 of the Constitution. The said findings are against the settled jurisprudence and hence liable to be reviewed,” it stated.
The appeal also stated that the observations mentioned above were made without citing any judgment or past precedent from the SC to support them, which goes against its established jurisprudence.
The judgment also overlooked the fact that this was an appeal under Article 185(3) of the Constitution, challenging a judgment of the Peshawar High Court, not a public interest petition under Article 184(3).
Moreover, the petitioner was not given any chance or right to be heard on the issue of whether reserved seats could be granted to PTI, which was not made a party before the SC or in the earlier proceedings.
The appeal further argued that the detailed reasoning, in making the above observations, ignored the established jurisprudence of the SC, particularly regarding the limitations on the Court’s powers under Article 187 of the Constitution.
It cited, for example, a ten-member bench judgment of the SC in Justice Qazi Faez Isa and another vs President of Pakistan, where the majority opinion in Paragraph No. 34 affirmed that no person, authority, tribunal, or court whether exercising executive or judicial powers can act against any person in violation of the law.
