ISLAMABAD, Mar 10 (APP): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the victory of Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Yousaf Raza Gillani in Senate polls and declared it as non-maintainable.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said it was not appropriate to drag judiciary into the unnecessary political matters.
He said petitioner Ali Nawaz Awan was a public representative and competent and he had yet several alternate forums to contest his case under election act. He should first approach there, he said.
Justice Minallah said how the court could accept this writ petition ignoring other legal forums.
He said the petitioner was alleging for horse trading in the Senate polls but in the mentioned video two members of his party were also visible.
The court would proceed the case under the law, he said adding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was an independent institution. It was almost impossible to prove video in the court in quo warranto writ petition, the bench observed.
He further said the ECP was an independent constitutional institution and only it was authorised to decide the matter.
The chief justice said the court had full confidence in the parliament and it always respected its members. Everyone was bound to follow the law, he added.
The court observed that the petitioner’s political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had already approached the ECP in that regard.
It may be mentioned here that the petition was filed by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority (CDA) Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan.
He prayed the court to stop ECP from issuing notification of Yousaf Raza Gillani’s victory, issue directives for legal action against him and his son Syed Ali Haider Gillani under election act for ‘horse trading’ in the Senate elections beside disqualifying Ali Haider Gillani from the membership of provincial assembly after his video surfaced on media.
