ISLAMABD: The government on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court’s detailed judgment that explained why it had set aside former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Khan Suri’s controversial ruling on the no-trust move against the then prime minister Imran Kha, while the PTI termed it to be “full of contradictions”.
The verdict, authored by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, stated that Suri had breached his constitutional duty by dismissing the no-confidence motion.
The top judge said the April 3 ruling failed to qualify for protection of the internal proceedings of parliament under Article 69(1) as it was “not the outcome of a vote in the national assembly instead, it was a unilateral decision”. The law states: “The validity of any proceedings in Majlis-i-Shoora (parliament) shall not be called in question on the ground of any irregularity of procedure.”
Justice Bandial also observed that the controversial action by the deputy speaker triggered a chain of events, the most concerning aspect of which was that it allowed the then PM to claim the constitutionally repugnant outcome of avoiding the no-trust motion without a vote by the assembly.
Welcoming the apex court’s detailed verdict, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said it had exposed the “lies and propaganda” of the PTI chief and his government.
“Utterly shameful how Imran Khan tried to undermine the Constitution and manufactured the lie of regime change,” he said, adding that the judgment was a “must read” for everyone.
Separately, federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar also endorsed the verdict and said that it would serve as an example in the future.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside PM’s Adviser on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Qamar Zaman Kaira, the minister said that the court had proven once again that it would always uphold the Constitution and protect the people’s mandate.
“The SC has declared that the deputy speaker’s ruling was unconstitutional and undemocratic,” he said. He also pointed out that the verdict stated the “ruling was based on ill-intention”.
He said that the apex court had clarified that Pakistan was at a critical juncture where it would need to make decisions to stop such practices from taking place in the future. “And it has now given the government and parliament the responsibility to take suitable measures to prevent such a situation.”
The minister claimed that the detailed verdict was the “final nail in the coffin” of Imran’s foreign conspiracy narrative as the cypher, which Suri used to dismiss the no-trust vote, was never shown to the court and was also not discussed in parliament.
“If the matter was as grave as Imran portrayed it to be, why didn’t he bring the document to parliament? What did he take it with himself to rallies and wave it at the public?” he contended.
“With all of this and the SC’s judgment, all the political parties in the country have come to the conclusion that the so-called narrative was brought to illegally stop the no-confidence vote,” Tarar said.
Meanwhile, Kaira said that everything that happened on April 3 was a “conspiracy against the institutions and the Constitution” of Pakistan.
“We have said this time and again: Imran Khan is a fascist man whose party is bent on spreading hatred and polarisation in the country.”
Imran, he claimed, only wanted to work with people who agreed with what he said while all those who disagreed were termed a “traitor”.
