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A Juristic Viewpoint on GB Elections and Caretaker Government Amendment Order 2020

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Justice Retired Muzaffar Ali

Being a student and practitioner of law since 1983, I still feel short of legal knowledge. In the year 2005, I was inducted as a judge to the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court and served in the higher judiciary until 2016 when from the Supreme Appellate Court, Gilgit-Baltistan. Having gone through The GB Elections and Caretaker Government Amendment Order dated 15 May 2020, some legal objections struck my judicial mind but before going to discuss the same, I would like to invite the juristic critique from all to make me understand if am wrong in my point of view.

The incumbent Government in Gilgit-Baltistan led by Chief Minister Hafeez Hafeez Ur Rehman of Pakistan Muslim League (N) will have its tenure ending on 23 June 2020. The new elections under The Government of Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018 or GB Order 2018 are required to be conducted within sixty days thereafter.

The Federal Government of Pakistan at this stage will enforce the GB Order 2018 that lacks the basic legal mechanism like putting in place a caretaker government and the election laws seem absent. The Federal Government instead of meeting the urgent situation with intend mala-fide moved an application before august Supreme Court with a prayer to get the permission of the court to amend the Order 2018 itself.

In my opinion, the Federation needed not to get the permission of honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan for any amendments in The GB Order 2018 in the pretext of guidelines issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan itself in its judgement dated 17/01/2019. The guidelines given by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the cited judgement are related to the “Annexed Proposed Order 2019” which has not been promulgated by the Federal Government in one or another pretext.

In fact, the Federal Government by pressing the urgency of the situation wanted to get ratification of The GB Order 2018. The honorable judges on the bench, hearing the application, reached to the hidden intention of the government but again guided the Federal Government to meet the situation. The guidance in the order dated 30/04/2020 is based on the legal dictum of honorable judges’ own, living aside the prayer made in the application.

The honorable court in its judgement ordered that, (a) the federal government may issue a presidential order to adopt Elections Act, 2017, etc. (b) in respect of set in a caretaker government to barrow the Article 56(5) etc. At this juncture, it is pertinent to mention that, Gilgit-Baltistan is, although, in de facto jurisdiction of Pakistan but is deprived of constitutional status and being ruled by administrative orders.

Lastly, the people of GB filed various petitions to get remedied from the apex Court of the country. The honorable Court really addressed this chronic issue creating a midway without prejudicing the Kashmir issue. During the hearing, the learned attorney general of Pakistan submitted a new order framed by the federal government. The honorable bench, after going through the new order and making some amendments of its own and with the consent of all the parties, delivered its celebrated judgement dated 17/01/2019, reported PLD 2019, page 357.

The learned Supreme Court annexed “The proposed Order, 2019” with the above-cited judgement and made the same part of it. The Supreme Court in its judgement bound the federal government to promulgate the proposed Order, 2019 at once or in any case within a fortnight thereof. The federal government did not comply with this direction of the Supreme Court yet and avoided its promulgation yet carried the business of GB under Government Order, 2018.

The government again ignored the directions given by the august Supreme Court. The President of Pakistan on the advice of the Prime Minister promulgated GB Elections and Caretaker Government Amendment Order 2020. Whereby, a new article 48-A was inserted in the “Government Order, 2018”. In its order dated 30-04-2020 the august Supreme Court has directed the learned Attorney General to place on record the Presidential order issued to implement the Supreme Court’s order in letter and spirit and hopefully, the same has been placed in record in the Supreme Court as such, let it be decided by Supreme Court, either the promulgated “Presidential Order, 2020” is contradictory to the august Supreme Court’s Order or not.

Though the promulgated presidential Order 2020 enabled amendment of Order 2018 and incorporated a new article 48-A in it but in my opinion, it does not meet the difficult legal situation arising for conducting the coming elections in Gilgit Baltistan. At the stage, I would like to reproduce the sub-rule one of the same “48-A.

Adaptation of electoral and caretaker government (1) The Election Act, 2017, all rules, regulation, and by-laws, framed thereunder (as are in force in Pakistan) shall be adopted in the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, mutatis mutandis.” The plain reading of above-reproduced Article 48-A (2) transpires that the president of Pakistan, in contravention with the directive given by the supreme court, has not adopted Elections Act, 2017 in the territory of Gilgit Baltistan mutatis mutandis: meaning thereby is that whenever a federal law is adopted for a region to which the same was not extended in past then, the adaptation includes applicable modifications in the adaptation order and it is enforced at once with the modifications relevant to the region in which the federal law is adopted.

The reading of the reproduced article gives an impression of future implementation but I visited through the Government Order, 2018, and failed to find any other authority or provision which meant to adopt federal laws. Last but not the least, the Federal Government, the provincial government of GB and all other authorities concerned have presumed that insertion of new article 48-A has sufficiently adopted the Elections Act, 2017 and are intended to process the election program.

The learned chief election commissioner GB has issued orders under the provisions of Elections Act, 2017 forgetting the fact that he being the Chief Election Commissioner of GB under article 97 of the Government of Gilgit Baltistan Order, 2018, appears nowhere in the Elections act, 2017. If one goes through chapter 1 of the Act, 2017, section 2 (ix) and (x) defines election commission of Pakistan constituted under Article, 218 of the constitution and chief election commissioner appointed under Article 213 of the constitution.

Again, the sub-section 2 (iv) defines “Assembly” means the national assembly or the provincial assembly provided under the constitution of Pakistan, while the GB assembly has been constituted under Article 48 of the Order, 2018 and it does not appear anywhere in Act, 2017.

Unless and until an adaption order is issued by the competent authority with applicable modifications and construed to refer chief election commissioner GB and also construed to refer GB assembly to construe in the Act, 2017. All the orders, without that adaptation Order with modification, of honorable chief election commissioner of GB would be void ab initio and the coming election in GB would be a nullity.

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