Qureshi lauds SC for not bowing to pressure

Three judges were part of same bench sending PTI govt home: Asad 

ISLAMABAD: Lashing out the government for looking excuses for polls delay, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders said that the lawyers representing the parties in government miserably failed to present any constitutional and solid argument for postponing the polls in Punjab and Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Talking to media here on Monday, Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi along with PTI Central Secretary General Asad Umar praised the Supreme Court (SC) for not bowing to the pressure of the imported government in the case. He said that the attorney general and other counsels representing the government could not present any solid argument to justify their stance to delay the elections. Qureshi stated that the SC bench listened to every single perspective with great patience but the government did not provide any substantial evidence for their arguments. He went on to day that the two main points raised by them were lack of resources and security personnel and they could not give a concrete response on it. Qureshi said that it was surprising that the imported government had announced it would boycott proceedings yet their lawyer was present in court and was seeking time from the apex court. He said as the former finance and planning minister, Asad Umar tried to facilitate the bench to a great extent on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, PTI Secretary General Asad Umar said in the court hearing ongoing for the last week, the government did not present arguments over why it could not hold elections. He said that the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) himself remarked that the federal government did not give a constitutional argument, which could be counted as a valid reason, for postponing the polls. “All they did during the meantime was making repeated attempts to create a division in the SC bench,” Asad said. He said the three judges were in the same five-member bench which sent the PTI government home. Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan were in the five-member bench which helped the PDM get into power, he said. The three judges were alleged of supporting the PTI, he said. The PTI leader said the verdict regarding ruling of PTI’s speaker was also given by a five-member bench and the PTI did not demand a full-court bench. All of them including Shehbaz Sharif had thanked the Supreme Court over the verdict, he maintained. He said Imran Khan did not say that he would not accept the verdict. “Since the government does not have any argument to make, therefore they are not trying to fight the case,” he said.