ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserve the verdict on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) appeal against the Lahore High Court’s order appointing eight election tribunals in Punjab to address election disputes after the February 8 general polls.

The development comes as the country’s top electoral authority’s plea was heard by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa-led five-member bench comprising Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi.

The matter involves the authority to constitute election tribunals which have been a point of contention between the LHC and the ECP for months.

The issue arose in June when the then-LHC CJ Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan formed eight election tribunals for hearing election petitions regarding national and provincial assembly constituencies from Punjab.

The development came after LHC’s Justice Shahid Karim on May 29 ordered the electoral body to appoint six more judges, nominated by the LHC chief justice, as election tribunals for hearing election petitions regarding the general elections and said that the notification would be deemed to have been issued in case of the ECP’s failure to comply by the court’s orders.

The dispute owes its origins to the amendments made to the Election Act 2017 regarding which judges could be part of election tribunals.

The matter ended up in the apex court which on July 4 suspended the LHC’s decision forming additional election tribunals as well as the ECP’s April 26 notification.

This is a developing story and is being updated with more details.