The coalition government is holding a press conference in Islamabad right now, just before the Supreme Court hears the petition filed by Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, who is contesting the ruling of the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker, who declared Hamza Shehbaz the winner of the race for re-election as chief minister.
Just yesterday, the administration declared that it would petition the Supreme Court (SC) for the formation of a full court bench to hear issues concerning the interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution, which deals with the status of defecting legislators.
At the commencement of the press conference, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz stated that she had been urged not to hold the media speak as it would damage her appeal in the Panama case, currently being handled by the Islamabad High Court and was in the “final stages.”
Maryam noted that the effects of recent court rulings continue to be felt decades after they are made and even get stronger with time.
One erroneous ruling, she warned, may invalidate her otherwise compelling argument. She countered that a fair conclusion can stand up to scrutiny.
She claimed that people were filing petitions with the court, but that they were either being ignored or taking too long to resolve.
When a petition is filed in our system, the people know exactly what kind of bench will hear it and what kind of judgement will be made, she added.
Maryam detailed the legal problems facing the PML-N, stating that the party’s leaders face bias.
She continued by asking, “Have you ever heard of a trustee chief minister?,” referencing Hamza.
Hamza, she claimed, was not being permitted to work since he was elected chief minister of Punjab. He is constantly switching between the parliament and the justice system. “What kind of justice is this?”
The PML-N vice president said that the party’s cases should be heard by the supreme court because it has several highly regarded judges on its bench.
She went on to say that “bench-fixing is a crime just like match-fixing,” and that “one or two judges, who have always been anti-PML-N and anti-government, they are regularly included in the bench.”
The head of the PML-N requested that the Supreme Court take “suo motu notice” of the matter.
Note that the three-judge bench hearing the case on the legality of the Punjab deputy speaker’s ruling includes Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar—three of the five judges who ruled in April that National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s decision to dismiss the vote of no-confidence against Imran Khan was unconstitutional, paving the way for Khan’s ouster and the
The re-election of the Punjab chief minister took place last week after a split judgement by the court barred the votes of defecting MPs. Justices Bandial, Ahsan, and Akhtar played key roles in this ruling.
During the press conference, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) president Maulana Fazlur Rehman backed Maryam’s stance, agreeing that the blame should be placed on the courts.
The administration, he said, wants to bolster the judicial system so that its decisions can stand on their own. There shouldn’t be any inconsistency or appearance of partiality between them.
He claimed that the people’s elected administration was being stymied in its duties. He continued by claiming that a new system was forced through rigging whenever a government was not created by the will of the country’s institutions.
To defend the state, he claimed, institutions have meddled in politics. But have they ever considered that their actions might have the opposite effect?
The Maulana reaffirmed the government’s demand for a full court bench, saying that it was unrealistic to expect justice from the existing panel of judges.
Mahnur is MS(development Studies)Student at NUST University, completed BS Hons in Eng Literature. Content Writer, Policy analyst, Climate Change specialist, Teacher, HR Recruiter.
