MUZAMIL AKHT AR SHABIR, J.---Through this constitutional petition, the petitioner who is a returned candidate from PP-123, Toba Tek Singh-VI, Pir Mahal, District Toba Tek Singh, has made the following prayer: "In view of the above submissions, it is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that the writ petition may kindly be accepted, the impugned letter/order dated 13.12.2018 passed by respondent No.3, issued by respondent No.4 may kindly be declared as illegal, unlawful, arbitrary , result of illegal exercise of jurisdiction and the same may kindly be set-aside and quashed.
It is further prayed that respondent No. 3 ?nay kindly be directed to decide the objections dated 05.12.2018 filed by the petitioner against report dated 03.12 .2018 submitted by respondent No.2 at the first instant before further proceeding in the matter .
It is also prayed that during pendency of present -writ petition, the operation of the impugned letter/order dated 13.12.2018 may kindly be suspended."
2. The petitioner and respondent No.1 contested elections for the afore referred constituency held on 25.07.2018 wherein the petitioner secured 53,105 votes while respondent No.1 secured 53, 145 votes out of total 1,28,140 total polled votes and there was a difference of only 40 votes between the candid ates whereas 4,555 votes were rejected and excluded from the polling. The petitioner filed an application before Return Officer/respondent No.2 ("RO") under Section 95(5) of the Elections Act, 2017 for recount of votes which was dismissed by the RO, although the same had been filed prior to consolidation of result and the RO issued form 49 on 28.07.2018. The petitioner challenged the said order before the Election Commission of Pakistan ("ECP") but his petition was dismissed on 31.07.2018 which order was called in question by filing W.P. No. 227602 of 2018 which was allowed by this Court on 03.08.2018 with a directi on to the RO to recount votes within two days. The I.C.A. No. 228081 of 2018 filed by respondent No.1 against the said order was dismissed by this Court on 08.08.2018 and C.P.L.A. No. 3219 of 2018 met the same fate on 10.08.2018. The respondent No.1 filed a Review Petition No.530 of 2018 which was disposed of by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan through a consent order dated 10.10.2018 by observing as under: "Learned counsel ,for the parties have no objection on the recount of the total votes in the PP-123, Toba Tek Singh constituency by the concerned Returning Officer (RO), therefore, we direct the RO to conduct the recount of the total votes and submit a report to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) within a period of three weeks positively ."
3. Thereafter , the RO in compliance of the aforesaid order B proceeded with recount of votes of 188 polling stations out of total 209 polling stations and did not count the votes of remaining 21 polling stations on the ground that previously the said votes had been counted as a result of recount of under Section 95(5) of the Act earlier held by him and submitted his report to the ECP wherein the petitioner filed objections that order passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan had not been complied with in letter and spirit. The ECP thereafter issued the impugned letter dated 13.12.2018 addressed to respondent No.2 in the following terms: "Keeping in view the aforesaid directions of the Hon'ble Commission, you are advised to proceed with the recounting process till its logical conclusion and after completing the proceedings, issue revised Form-48 together with Form-49 within three days from the receipt of this letter as the issuance of Form-48 and Form-49 based on the result of the recounting are integral part of recounting process. Needless to say that under provisions contained in section 95(2) of the Elections Act, 2017 read with provisions of sub-rules (3), (4), (5) and (6) of rules 85 and 86 of the Election Rules, 2017, the Returning Officer is empowered to reject a ballot paper by endorsing thereon the reason of such rejection."
4. The said order has been called in question by the petitioner by challenging the same as violative of the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan whereas the counsel for respondents has defended the said order as being inconsonance with the order of the Supreme Court. In the reply submitted by the ECP. it is observed that orders passed by c the Hon'ble Supreme Court are duly being complied with. This narrows down the dispute to the point that whether orders passed by the Supreme Court are being complied with or not whereas every party seeks its view of Article 189 of Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, implementation in letter and spirit. It is pertinent to mention here that in D 1973, the decision of the Supreme Court is binding on all the parties and the same is to be implemented in letter and spirit.
5. For what has been discussed above, this petition is disposed of with a direction to the RO as well as ECP to ensure that the order dated 10.10.2018 of the Supreme Court is implemented in letter and spirit.