ISLAMABAD: A three-member Supreme Court bench expressed annoyance over the failure to carry out its directive regarding the postponement of the Punjab elections.
The court, presided over by Pakistan’s Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, heard the matter in chambers and ordered the State Bank of Pakistan to transfer money straight to the country’s Election Commission.
Sima Kamil, the deputy governor of the SBP, Mansoor Usman Awan, the attorney general of Pakistan, and the special and additional secretaries of finance all came before the bench.
The judges voiced their anger and demanded that the directives be carried out. The federal government had been instructed to provide funding for the elections, but it had not done so, according to a report the ECP gave to the supreme court.
AGP Mansoor Usman Awan, who informed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that the parliament had prevented the government from distributing funds for the elections, was consulted prior to the hearing and said he would present the government’s position during the in-chamber hearing.