LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday reserved its judgement on a petition by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja challenging an amendment to the Election Act 2017 and the establishment of election tribunals comprising retired judges.

During the hearing, a lawyer for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said the petition should be referred to a full bench for hearing as a similar matter was already pending before that bench. At this, Barrister Sameer Khosa, the counsel for the petitioner, asked the court to issue a stay order if the petition was to be referred to the full bench.

He argued that the impugned election tribunal led by former judge Rana Zahid Mahmood was not lawfully established as the presiding officer was not a former judge of the high court. Justice Ahmad Nadeem Arshad observed that the court would issue a decision on the matter.

The petitioner had contended that the tribunal member was removed from the office of the LHC judge in the light of a 2009 Supreme Court judgement against the appointments of judges made during the tenure of PCO chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar. Therefore, he said, the respondent was not qualified to be a member of an election tribunal.

He also argued that forming election tribunals comprising both serving and retired judges of the high court undermines judicial independence. He asked the court to restrain the respondent tribunal comprising retired judge Rana Zahid Mahmood from hearing the election petitions regarding NA-128, Lahore.

The petitioner further requested the court to set aside the impugned amendment to the Election Act 2017, allowing the appointment of retired judges as election tribunals.

Raja had contested the Feb 8 general election as a PTI-backed candidate from the National Assembly constituency, NA-128, Lahore. However, his opponent Aun Chaudhry of the lstehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) won the contest. Aun bagged 172,576 votes against 159,024 of Raja.-Staff Reporter