Thank God, the Supreme Court has undone Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s move to dissolve the National Assembly for being patently illegal and unconstitutional. The court never could risk legitimizing such a blatant violation of the law. At the same time, the judges brought the National Assembly working back to the no-confidence motion proceeding level, asking the National Assembly speaker to convene the assembly session on Saturday and go ahead with the business. It was being expected that the bench may balance out the verdict by asking the other parties to show restraint and work out an amicable solution to go for the next general election. But the court, contrary to its earlier observations, asked Imran Khan to adopt the constitutional route of the no-confidence vote.
Since April 3, when Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial took a suo motu notice after Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri had said that the no-confidence vote will not go through as per Article 5 of the constitution, the country has suffered economically and politically a lot. The State Bank of Pakistan has raised the interest rate to 12.5 percent as damage control. There was total chaos in the country, and it seemed it had no government at all.
The Supreme Court’s verdict has not only snubbed the illegal game played by Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government’s officials but also rejected PTI lawmakers’ interpretation of the motion as “a foreign conspiracy to remove Prime Minister Imran Khan”. Following the decision taken by the deputy speaker, the prime minister advised the president to dissolve the assemblies and called for elections in the next 90 days.
Until today, Imran Khan and his party were celebrating their so-called victory. However, the Supreme Court has given the verdict against Imran Khan and his illegal schemes. The apex court has declared the National Assembly deputy speaker’s ruling unconstitutional, the National Assembly has been restored and it has ordered the President to convene the National Assembly session on April 9th so that the voting on the no-confidence motion may be held.
Such a ruling is extremely important for Pakistan regardless of political affiliations. By not letting the no-confidence motion take place and dissolving assemblies, Imran Khan was setting a precedent that would have allowed politicians in the future to set aside the constitution as per their whims. The Constitution of Pakistan is the fundamental document that protects the rights of citizens and states the due process of how the government must be run and how it may be changed. No man should have the power to violate the document for personal gain.
The reasons provided by Imran Khan may be true but Pakistan is a democratic country with functional courts and if there was a conspiracy then those being affected by it should have gone to the courts with evidence rather than dissolving assemblies just to not let go of power. Supreme Court’s verdict comes as a breath of fresh air as it openly declares that Pakistan is a country of laws, not one of the political agendas.
