A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar will take up the joint opposition’s plea challenging National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling on the dismissal of a no-confidence motion filed against Prime Minister Imran Khan to oust him from office.
On Sunday, the NA deputy speaker termed the no-confidence motion against the premier “unconstitutional” under Article 5 and disallowed it from voting upon stating that “it had been filed and orchestrated by the joint opposition with the help of a foreign government”.
Earlier on Sunday, the Supreme Court barred all state institutions from taking any “extra-constitutional” steps in the wake of the dismissal of the no-confidence motion and the subsequent dissolution of the National Assembly by the president.
The apex court has issued notices to the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) and others. The Supreme Court has issued notices to political parties, interior and defence secretaries and others.
Top layer Salman Akram Raja told Narratives that the NA deputy speaker’s act was a blatant violation of the Constitution and it cannot be condoned.
He said that the Supreme Court may look into the matter in light of article 69, which bars the court from intervening in matters of parliament. He, however, explained that “now all explanations will be a premise and nothing could be said with cast-iron certainty about what the apex court will decide”.
He, however, said that under the law, the voting on the no-confidence should have taken place and the prime minister should have faced the no-confidence motion.
Raja said that “yesterday was a disgraceful day in our constitutional history. “This was not about politics but it was about an utter disregard for the rule of law,” he said
Earlier, the Supreme Court directed the AGP to determine the constitutionality of the ruling of the deputy speaker against the no-confidence motion.
In the petition, the joint opposition has taken the plea that “the act of the deputy speaker by proroguing the session of parliament on the vote of no-confidence motion be declared a violation of fundamental rights of the people”.
The plea said that “the deputy speaker’s ruling was against the articles 66, 95, 17(2) of the Constitution and other enabling provisions and that this act and all consequences thereafter may be set aside by declaring the same illegal, ultra vires to the Constitution”.
The petition has sought directives to the National Assembly speaker/deputy speaker to conduct the vote count on the no-confidence motion of the members present in the National Assembly, on the floor of the house and declare the result of the no-confidence motion”.
It has further prayed that “the respondents might be directed not to interfere with the vote count and smooth voting on the resolution of no-confidence of the prime minister as per the agenda today”.
