SC issues detailed verdict in Reserved Seats Case; declares PTI a parliamentary party & eligible for reserved seats

Islamabad, Pakistan: Speaker Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Khan while addressing the media on Monday used very strong-worded language, calling the ongoing tussle between the parliament and the judiciary a kind of ‘judicial gunda gardi’ (judicial vandalism).

In the same talk, he praised Chief Minister Punjab Maryum Nawaz like a poet of a Greek court praising his king. This actually represents the mindset of the custodian of a provincial House that the House is standing behind the ruling Nawaz family in a blunt war with the higher judiciary. I believe that PMLN as well as the higher judiciary are suggesting to each other through one of the couplets of Faiz Ahmad Faiz:

Na ganvaao naavak-e-neemkash, dil-e-rezaa-rezaa ganvaa diya

(Stay your half-drawn arrow, waste it not—this heart lies splintered, long dispersed.)

Jo bache the sang samet lo, tan-e-daag daag lutaa diya

(Gather up such stones as you can, this body lies rent, its day is done.)

Whenever the government thinks that it can resolve its issues with judges of the Supreme Court, Islamabad High Court, Lahore High Court, and Peshawar High Court, something more lethal comes out from the higher judiciary. It looks like the amateur legal team of the PMLN government is trying to fight hawkish judges while the toothless expensive media team of the government seems withdrawn in front of PTI media management that mostly works on behalf of the hawkish judges. All previous rounds of free-style wrestling were won by the PTI-friendly judges and the government was left with nothing just to deny following court rulings and this would be written in the judicial history of Pakistan. Flouting court decisions is the only option left with the government when the judiciary is bent on rewriting the Constitution again and again. Alas, there could have been a better match if PMLN had a mass following and mobilized workers. The latest complexity over the political horizon painted by the higher judiciary through its detailed decision issued today regarding the specific seats of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has created more confusion. The detailed decision arrived when the government depended upon getting reserved seats needed for passing a critical but useful constitutional package. This proposed package can work as a guard against reckless decisions of the higher courts but ‘Rome is still far away’.

After this judgment, some political circles are arguing that the Supreme Court decision should be implemented whether it is right or wrong, but the question is how to determine the right direction of Parliament by implementing a controversial decision.

According to legal experts, the brief order of the Supreme Court on July 12 and today’s detailed decision do not have any positive effects on the judiciary-PMLN stand and the decision will increase the tension between institutions. The dissenting notes of two judges in this case and Justice Mansoor’s remarks about them reflect the battle within the Supreme Court as well. Some legal circles also say that the Supreme Court is encroaching powers of the Election Commission of Pakistan which is also a Constitutional institution and the question arises why SC judges are making decisions constantly that either trespass the powers of the Parliament or the Election Commission of Pakistan? The detailed judgment of the Supreme Court has made the Election Act invalid and practically taken over the Election Commission.