ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial expressed dismay over non-implementation of its orders for elections in Punjab.
The top court directed the State Bank of Pakistan to provide funds directly to the Election Commission of Pakistan for the Punjab polls.
The bench passed the orders while holding in-camera hearing of the case, and issued directives to the authorities concerned.
In compliance with the court orders, SBP Deputy governor Sima Kamil, special and additional secretaries finance, ECP secretary and AGP Mansoor Usman appeared before the bench.
The sources said that the top court observed that the government had to implement the orders. They said that the bench asked tough question to the AGP about the stance of the government.
The three-member bench of the top court, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, had had ordered the ECP to hold elections in Punjab on May 14, and directed the federal government to provide funds amounting to Rs21 billion to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by April 10.
The ECP, however, submitted a report before the court on Tuesday and informed that the federal government did not provide it funds for elections in Punjab.
AGP asks how govt can issue funds when parliament has stopped it:
Earlier, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usmna Awan arrived at the Prime Minister’s office following the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for consultation about elections funds.
As he got free and came out of the PM office, the Attorney General said that the federal government did not have authority to issue funds for elections if the parliament had stopped it from issuing the funds.
The AGP, after consultation with the PM, returned to the Supreme Court to represent the government.
After arrival at the SC, the AGP raised a question, “how can the government issue funds when the parliament forbad the issuance of the funds.
