Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to chair a meeting of leaders of the coalition government in Islamabad on Saturday (today) to “devise a future strategy for the government” as the country faces a judicial crisis on top of long-ongoing economic and political crises, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

Chairing the meeting from Lahore via a video link, Shehbaz will discuss the “overall political situation of the country” while Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar will brief the members on legal issues, Radio Pakistan said.

The high-level meeting comes as the Supreme Court ponders the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)‘s deferral of elections in Punjab by more than five months. The court itself has been bogged down by internal drama of its own, as on Friday, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail recused himself from hearing the PTI’s plea against the delay, becoming the second judge to do so.

His withdrawal came a day after Justice Aminuddin Khan had recused himself from hearing the case.

Adding to a series of dissenting notes and recusals on a suo-motu case on the same matter, the happenings of the past two days left the PTI petition to three judges: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Muneeb Akhtar.

The government has been demanding that a full court bench be formed to hear the matter.

The meeting also follows PML-N supremo and former premier Nawaz Sharif’s rare press conference, who hit out at members of the superior judiciary — specifically CJP Bandial and ex-CJP Saqib Nisar — for what he called were “selective” benches for suo-motu notices.

Meanwhile, the same day, PTI Chairman Imran Khan tweeted the PML-N is trying to create a 1997-like situation when its workers attacked the Supreme Court to pressurise the then chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah hearing a contempt petition.

Notably, he also said he was ready to hold talks with parties that were ready to oppose the “conspiracy” against the Constitution and court.

Contention over election date ruling

Friction in the original five-member bench constituted to hear the PTI petition could already be seen on March 29.

During that day’s proceedings, the March 1 Supreme Court judgement regarding elections in KP and Punjab became a bone of contention among top judges, as Justice Mandokhail, while sticking to his guns, wondered about the “order of the court” in the suo motu proceedings.

To date, no “order of the court” has been released and in the absence of such an order, how could April 30 be announced as the election date or its extension till Oct 8, Justice Mandokhail regretted.

In case of a split decision, the order of the court explains, in the end, the “real order” and which judgement was in majority or in minority, Justice Mandokhail observed, adding that even “if we summoned the case file, one will find out there was no order of the court”.

Meanwhile, Justice Akhtar wondered how the “minority could claim to be in majority when the March 1 short order was signed by all five judges”.

Justice Mandokhail wondered whether the note issued by Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Athar Minallah had vanished in thin air or whether the CJP removed them from the bench. But the CJP observed that “whatever happens behind the chambers should be kept among ourselves”.

Instead of harping on the same point, the CJP observed that the attorney general of Pakistan would assist the court on the footnote mentioned by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah in his dissenting note on March 1 short order and had held that the opinions of Justice Afridi and Justice Minallah will be considered part of the judgement.

Punjab, KP election limbo

The Punjab and KP assemblies were dissolved on Jan 14 and Jan 18, respectively. Under the law, the elections are to be held within 90 days after the dissolution of assemblies.

That means April 14 and April 17 were the deadlines for holding general elections to Punjab and KP assemblies, but the two governors instead of setting dates for elections after receiving the proposal from the ECP had advised the commission to consult stakeholders.

Chief secretaries and inspectors-general of the two provinces during meetings with the ECP had said they were short of police force and talked of terrorism threats, making out a case for putting off elections.

The finance division had also expressed its inability to provide funds and the interior ministry told the ECP that the army and civil armed forces will not be available.

On Feb 17, President Alvi had invited Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja for an urgent meeting regarding consultations on election dates but the ECP told him he had no role in the announcement of dates for general elections to provincial assemblies.

Subsequently, the president unilaterally announced April 9 as the date for holding general elections for the Punjab and KP assemblies.

The move drew sharp criticism from his political opponents, who accused him of acting like a PTI worker while the ECP said it would announce the poll schedule only after the “competent authority” fixes the date.

Additionally, over the past few months, the law and order situation in the country has also worsened, with terrorist groups executing attacks with near impunity across the country.

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