Islamabad: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday, April 7, struck down National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri’s controversial move to dismiss a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The court ordered the speaker to convene a session of the Assembly on April 9, Saturday, at 10 am to organise the no-confidence vote. A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Bandial described the rejection of the trust vote by the deputy speaker as “unconstitutional”.
On the other hand, the five-judge bench also unanimously ruled the dissolution of the parliament – by President Ari Alvi based on the advice of Prime Minister Khan – as “unconstitutional”. The bench restored the parliament.
On April 3, deputy speaker Suri, who is associated with Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, dismissed the no-confidence motion against the premier. He claimed that it was linked to a “foreign conspiracy” to topple the government and hence was not maintainable. Minutes later, President Ari Alvi dissolved the National Assembly on the advice of Prime Minister Khan who had effectively lost the majority.
On Thursday, April 7, Chief Justice Bandial, during the hearing, noted the deputy speaker’s ruling as “prima facie a violation of Article 95”.
Security in and around the apex court was beefed up. Riot police forces were deployed outside the court building.
A number of lawyers appeared in court to plead in the complex case. Naeem Bokhari represented deputy speaker Suri, Imtiaz Siddiqui appeared for Prime Minister Khan, Ali Zafar represented President Alvi and Attorney General Khaled Javed Khan represented the government.
Babar Awan appeared on behalf of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Raza Rabbani for the Pakistan Peoples Party and Makhdoom Ali Khan for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Apart from leading lawyers representing various parties, the court also called at the rostrum Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president and main opposition leader, and asked about his view on the way forward in the wake of uncertainty due to the dissolution of the Assembly and announcement of fresh elections.
Shehbaz said how the opposition leaders can take part in the election after being labelled as “traitors”. He left it to the court to decide but urged that rule of law should be adhered to and added that “we cannot face even our families after being called as traitors”.
He was referring to the ruling by the deputy speaker that the no-confidence motion was linked with a so-called “foreign conspiracy”.
With the court ruling against the deputy speaker, parliament is likely to reconvene and hold the no-confidence vote against Khan.
(With PTI inputs)