The sovereign house has emphasised the trichotomy of powers enshrined in the Constituent and appointed a committee to lead requisite reforms.
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: In a move apparently prompted by some controversial decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP), the National Assembly is preparing to undertake judicial reform to ensure its exclusive right to legislate.
The country’s sovereign legislative house adopted a resolution the other day constituting a joint special committee of the two houses of the country’s bicameral parliament to institute the requisite judicial reforms “to ensure the supremacy of the parliament and the Constitution in letter and spirit”.
The resolution, moved by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, the National Assembly asserted that the Parliament is the representative of the will of the people of Pakistan, and that it “shall not allow any other institution to transgress and encroach on its powers”.
The immediate trigger of the move seems to be a string of controversial Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) verdicts that upended the country’s political landscape, allowing the allies of former Prime Minister Imran Khan to storm back into power in Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province.
On May 17, 2022, the majority ruling signed by 3 judges on a 5-member bench of the SCP interpreted Article 63A of the constitution to mean the votes cast contrary to the instructions of the party head could not be counted.
This novel interpretation has never been in evidence since the insertion of the so called defection clause into the Constitution as part of the Eighteenth Amendment in 2010.
The two remaining judges in their dissenting note maintained that the interpretation advanced by the majority ruling would amount to re-writing the Constitution.
In any case, the interpretation deprived the chief ministerial candidate backed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) of majority by excluding the votes cast in his favour by 25 dissenters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
On Thursday, the Supreme Court declined to entertain a review petition against the May 17 ruling, maintaining the matter was between the President and the court.
The full text of the NA resolution may be read below.
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