Pakistan House passes resolution rejecting SC verdict on Punjab polls

161

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Parliament on Thursday passed a resolution rejecting the Supreme Court’s decision about the Punjab elections delay case and demanded a full court to decide this issue as the row between the judiciary and the government deepened in the country.

A three-member bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Tuesday fixed May 14 as the new date for elections to the Punjab Assembly, as it quashed the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to extend the polls date from April 10 to October 8.

The coalition government reacted angrily to the judgment and rejected it, while the ECP issued a revised schedule to hold the election as per the verdict. In the latest development, the National Assembly or the lower house passed a resolution to reject the decision of the apex court.

The resolution came after PM Shehbaz Sharif addressing a Cabinet meeting described the decision as a “mockery of the Constitution and law” and added that it could not be implemented.