AJK Supreme Court defers hearing on petition against PTI’s provisional registration

MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Supreme Court on Thursday deferred hearing on the Election Commission’s application seeking ex parte ad interim relief against a high court order directing the provisional registration of PTI as a political party. A full court comprising Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram, Justice Raza Ali Khan and Justice Khalid Yousaf Chaudhary ruled that the application would be heard along with the Election Commission’s petition for leave to appeal (PLA) after the latter completes scrutiny in the court’s registry. On June 23, the AJK High Court had directed the commission to provisionally register PTI as a political party, effectively suspending the commission’s May 16 decision rejecting the party’s registration application. Challenging the order, the Election Commission filed a petition for leave to appeal (PLA) in the Supreme Court along with an application under Rules 1 and 2 of Order VI of the Supreme Court Rules, 1978, seeking ex parte ad interim relief pending the appeal. At the previous hearing, PTI counsel Yasir Safeer Mughal sought an adjournment, saying he was not adequately prepared to argue the case. Thereupon, Chief Justice Akram ordered that the operation of the high court’s June 23 order, to the extent of the interim relief granted to PTI, would remain in abeyance until July 2. When the matter came up on Thursday, the apex court ordered that the commission’s application would be heard together with the PLA. No date for the hearing was fixed. However, with the Supreme Court set to begin its summer recess on Monday, which will continue until Oct 7, the case is unlikely to be taken up before the elections, effectively leaving the legal status of PTI’s provisional registration unresolved during the electoral process. The general elections in AJK are scheduled to be held on July 27.