Chief Justice of Pakistan on Thursday remarked that it would be ‘contemptuous’ to no count a vote cast during the no-confidence vote proceedings against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Hearing the presidential plea filed to seek the apex court’s interpretation of Article 63-A, the chief justice observed that it was imperative to find out how long could a dissident MNA could be disqualified for,
Article 63-A laid out the procedure for the disqualification of a parliamentarian over defection, he observed.
A five-member bench, comprising Justice Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail heard the petition.
Notices for the hearing were issued to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s lawyer Ali Zafar, PPP’s lawyer Farooq H Naek, PML-N’s lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s lawyer Kamran Murtaza, as well as the advocate general for Sindh, Islamabad inspector general of police, interior secretary and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), among others.
Speaking to the media later, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had launched a propaganda campaign on social media against the Supreme Court bench hearing presidential reference on Article 63-A which was highly condemnable.
The minister said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf respected all honorable judges of the apex court and hoped that they would follow the law and constitution.
Expressing his strong concerns over the attitude of Supreme Court Bar Association, he said that bars should not become subsidiary of political parties as their office bearers were elected from the votes of lawyers supporting various political parties.
He appealed to bar councils of Pakistan to take notice of highly biased attitude of some office bearers of SCBA and asked to hold them accountable for making entire bar hostage to their whims.
Referring to the no confidence motion, the minister said that the opposition had started the game of chess but the government would finish it.
Replying to a question he said that the Supreme Court had given clear guidelines for holding public rallies in Islamabad. He said that so far opposition parties had not applied for organizing any rally and apparently only PTI would hold the biggest rally of the history of the country next week.
