By Justice Markandey Katju

Mirza Ghalib writes :

”Karenge kohkan ke hausle ka imtihan aakhir
Abhi us khasta ke nerwe tan ki aazmaish hai ”

The 3-judge bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Bandial, ordered implementation of Article 224(2) of the Pakistan Constitution, and fixed 14th May as the date for holding elections to the Punjab Assembly.

Now the question is whether the bench, particularly CJP Bandial, has the gumption and spine, or to use a vulgar but more effective expression, the balls, to enforce its order?

The PDM Govt is clearly adamant that elections be not held as ordered since it knows that the PDM will be wiped out in the polls ( as opinion polls also indicate ). So it has tried to be too clever by half, by not paying to the Election Commission of Pakistan the amount ordered by the Supreme Court for holding the elections, and instead sending the matter to Parliament (to provide a pretext for non-payment). The present Pakistan Parliament is dominated by the PDM (in fact PTI members have resigned from the National Assembly), so it is bound to reject the demand on some excuse or adopt dilatory tactics, like referring the matter to a committee.

But this move is so transparent that it can fool no one.

PM Shahbaz Sharif and the PDM Govt are clearly guilty of contempt of court.

The then CJP Iftikhar Choudhry had the balls to dismiss then PM Yusuf Raza Gilani for contempt of court. The question is: does the present CJP Bandial have similar balls?