Government Applauds Supreme Court’s Reasons Against Qasim Suri

The government applauded the detailed judgment of Supreme Court which explained why it had not supported former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Khan Suri’s controversial ruling on the no-trust move against the former Prime Minister Imran Khan, while the PTI entitled it to be “full of contradictions”.

The verdict given by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial stated that Suri had violated his constitutional duty  by dismissing the no-confidence motion. The top judge stated that 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.” The action by deputy speaker had been a controversial action hich triggered a train of events and allowed the PM to avoid no-confidence motion without a vote by the assembly.

Honourable Supreme Court's detailed judgement on Vote of No Confidence exposes the lies & propaganda indulged in by Imran Khan & Co. Utterly shameful how IK tried to undermine the Constitution & manufactured the lie of "regime change". The judgement is a must read for everyone.

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) July 14, 2022

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tweeted welcoming the court’s verdict,”Honourable Supreme Court’s detailed judgement on Vote of No Confidence exposes the lies & propaganda indulged in by Imran Khan & Co. Utterly shameful how IK tried to undermine the Constitution & manufactured the lie of “regime change”. The judgement is a must read for everyone.”

Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar said that it would serve as an example in the future by supporting this verdict.  Qamar Zaman Kaira, the minister, while addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside PM’s Adviser on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan 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”. “And it has now given the government and parliament the responsibility to take suitable measures to prevent such a situation,” he stated while proving that such incidents will not take place in future.

“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. The minister claimed that the so-called conspiracy which Imran Khan had narrated comes to an end with this detailed verdict. “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, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah demands that President Arif Alvi must step from his position after this court verdict. “The federal government is authorised to send a reference under Article 6 over constitutional violation and proceedings on it have already begun,” Sanaullah said while addressing a separate press conference in Islamabad later in the day.

Also Read: Who will blink first: the establishment, Imran Khan, or PDM?

On the other hand, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry termed the judgement on Suri’s ruling to be “full of contradictions” and said the apex court had given good decisions in the past but not now. He further claimed the military establishment had been involved in making “political decisions”. “Unfortunately, this is Pakistan’s history,” he said, adding that this, however, would change.