The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) has said that former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri’s unilateral ruling, wherein he dismissed the no-confidence motion against former prime minister Imran Khan, did not have parliamentary immunity.
The Supreme Court issued a detailed judgment today detailing the reasoning behind its judgement which nullified Suri’s April 3 ruling.
Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial has stated in the ruling that Suri had breached his constitutional duty and his April 3 ruling had failed to qualify for protection of internal parliamentary proceedings under Article 69(1) of the constitution.
Chief Justice has stated that the court’s intention was to maintain constitutional order, which was only possible if assembly was restored.
Justice Bandial has also stated that the text of cypher was not shown to the apex court. He observed that there was need of an inquiry that could be carried out either by a commission constituted by the federal government under the 2017 Act or a specialized commission under an act of parliament or an ordinance.
The court said that PTI’s plea regarding suo moto over national security and breaching sovereignty was without precedent.
Justice Mazhar observed that law must take its course against such blatant transgression of the constitution when elected representatives were perverted from voting.
Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel observed in his additional note that deputy speaker’s action was biased. He added that unconstitutional forces had already misused the doctrine of necessity because of which democracy had suffered a lot.
On the other side, the government has hailed the detailed decision of the apex court whereas PTI has called the judgment to be full of contradictions.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has welcomed the detailed verdict. He said that PTI chief and his government’s lies had been exposed. Calling it utter shamefulness, the premier said that Imran Khan manufactured the lie of regime change.
Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has said that the decision would serve as an example in the future. He pointed that according to the judgment the deputy speaker’s ruling was based on ill-intentions.
PTI’s leader and former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry called the verdict to be full of contradictions. He demanded an inquiry over the cypher, further saying that instead of current occupied parliament, an elected assembly would be instituted and the judgment would be presented and quashed there.
He said that when the PTI gets a two-third majority, it would be decided in parliament whether Article 6 applied to violation of Article 69 or not.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has demanded the resignation of the president. In a press conference on Thursday, he said that there was no crime bigger than fraud and violation of constitution. He said that the federal government had started work upon the reference on Article 6.
