A five-member bench headed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and including Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail has said that it would only determine the legality of National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling on the no-trust motion that had been brought by the opposition against Prime Minister Imran Khan. The Court has said that it would not interfere in matters of state or foreign policy, but would like to establish whether the judiciary has review over. CJP Bandial noted that when it came to the ruling of the deputy speaker of the NA, “We prefer that a decision be taken on this matter only.”
The apex court had taken a suo motu cognizance of the current political situation in the country. After hearing arguments by counsels for the opposition parties, proceedings were adjourned till 11 am on Wednesday. Earlier, the Chief Justice had remarked that the court would issue a “reasonable order on the issue.”
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Raza Rabbani presented his arguments in court, along with senior counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan representing the PML-N.
The Supreme Court has asked for the record of National Assembly proceedings that took place on the no-confidence motion filed against the then PM Imran Khan.
PPP Senator Raza Rabbani stated that the court had to examine how far parliamentary proceedings had “immunity” from judicial review. “Whatever has happened can only be termed as civilian martial law,” he said. “The no-confidence motion can’t be dismissed without voting on it,” said Senator Rabbani, citing Article 95 of the Constitution. He also said that a deliberate attempt was made to construct a narrative against the no-trust motion by the government side, which relied on claims of a foreign conspiracy. The Senator stated that it was wrong of the Deputy Speaker to term opposition lawmakers as traitors to the country, and also emphasised that assemblies could not be dissolved while a motion of no-trust was in place. The Senator called on the court to set aside the deputy speaker’s ruling and to restore the National Assembly. Regarding the claims by the then ruling party about a foreign conspiracy, Senator Rabbani said that the minutes of the National Security Committee meeting on this issue, as well as the contents of the alleged ‘threat letter’ must be presented to the court.
PML-N’s counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan said that the no-confidence motion was submitted to the NA with the signatures of 152 lawmakers while 161 had voted in favour of tabling it, after which proceedings had been adjourned till March 31. The counsel noted that a debate on the no-trust move was supposed to be conducted on March 31, but this was not done. He added that the voting was also not done on April 3.
Justice Mandokhail noted that the real question was whether or not the deputy speaker’s ruling was legal. “The real issue is to examine the constitutional status of the ruling,” he said.
Ardesheer Cowasjee, a true Pakistani in every sense, wrote to me (long time ago), Pakistan will remain healthy as long as her courts are healthy, and his most poignant prediction was “Nobody will cry for Pakistan”. His words are ringing true today.