ISLAMABAD, Dec 29 (NNI): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has challenged the suspension orders of Returning Officer (RO) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa constituency PK-91, Kohat-II in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Earlier, the Peshawar High Court has suspended the ECP orders regarding appointment of Irfan Ullah as Returning Officer PK-91, Kohat-II.
As per details Advocate Afnan Karim Kundi has filed the appeal on behalf of the Election Commission under Article 185(3) of the Constitution against a verdict given by the PHC on December 27.
The ECP appeal has questioned whether the impugned order of the high court amounted to interfering with the constitutional and statutory public duties of the ECP concerning the appointment of ROs under Article 218(3), read with Section 51 of the Elections Act 2017, and as such no interim relief could be granted by the way of suspension of the ECP notification dated December 25, 2023, substituting the RO.
The complainants submitted to the PHC the December 25 notification, whereby the Election Commission substituted the returning officer for the KP constituency after which the court suspended the aforesaid notification while issuing notice to the ECP.
The ECP questioned whether the high court could suspend the ECP notification without first issuing notice to the ECP and without affording an opportunity to explain that there in fact existed a valid reason for substitution of the earlier notified returning officer with another official which was on medical grounds.
The ECP submitted that the candidates for an election did not have a vested right in their nomination papers scrutinised by a particular returning officer, furnishing them locus standi to invoke writ jurisdiction of the high court in that regard.
The electoral body contended that the high court should not have passed the impugned order in a writ petition that was filed in sheer conjuncture failing to allege any particular prejudice caused to the petitioners by the substitution of earlier RO.
The ECP prayed to the apex court that leave to appeal might be granted to it from the impugned order passed by the high court on December 27, 2023, in the petition in the best interest of justice. NNI
