Pakistan Supreme Court issues notices to all parties after petition seeking intervention to end deadlock

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday issued notices to all parliamentary parties after hearing a set of petitions filed against sit-ins organized by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) on the Constitution Avenue.

According to the Dawn, the apex court issued the notices after petitioner Zulfiqar Naqvi pleaded to the court that all parliamentary parties be summoned so the deadlock can be resolved.

Taking cognizance of the petition filed, notices have been issued by the court to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid (PML-Q), Pakistan Muslim League - Zia (PML-Z), Balochistan National Party (BNP), Awami Muslim League (AML), All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMap), National Party (NP) and other parties in Parliament as well as PAT.

Pakistan's Supreme Court, yesterday, asked PTI and PAT to respond to the court's offer to assist the protesting parties in resolving the ongoing political crisis.

During the hearing of a plea against extra-constitutional steps and sit-ins in the heart of Islamabad earlier, the bench asked the counsel of both protesting parties to ask their party leadership what role they wanted the apex court to play in the present situation, the Dawn reported.

A visibly disturbed Justice Jawwad S Khwaja asked the council whether what was happening at the counsel was any different from any insurgency happening in FATA.

He said that senior counsel Hamid Khan has suggested taking suo motu and asked the council for their suggestion on the kind of suo motu action that needed to be taken.