“Confrontation (among institutions) will lead the country nowhere. There is a need for dialogue among institutions to lower the temperature,” Rabbani remarked when some of the senators asked him to play his role in the ongoing crisis developed in the country due to the confrontation between the government and the judiciary.
Interestingly, Senator Farhatullah Babar whose Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) was among the petitioners who had challenged the Elections Act, 2017, was also among those who expressed their reservations over the Supreme Court’s verdict.
“The judgement cannot be applauded as it has the potential to increase political instability in the country,” said Babar, who is also the secretary-general as well as the official spokesperson for his party.
Babar’s remarks clearly indicated a division within the PPP and confirmed the reports that there were a number of senior leaders in the party who were against the leadership’s decision of becoming a party in the petitions as they believed that by doing so they would themselves be inviting the court to encroach upon parliament’s jurisdiction.
The opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also lamented the apex court’s verdict, saying that it had put a question mark over the issue of parliament’s supremacy besides undermining its power to do legislation.
Usman Kakar of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) was of the opinion that such a decision was not a good omen for democracy and parliament.
He said it was the right of the party members and workers to choose their president and no other institution should have the powers to make such decisions.
Kakar repeated the allegation raised by his party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai in the National Assembly a few days ago that the military was interfering in political matters in Baluchistan and a brigadier was supervising the Senate election process.
He alleged that a “conspiracy against democracy” was ready and its implementation started with the change of government in the province.
The PkMAP senator said that legislation was the job of parliament and all other institutions, including the Supreme Court, were bound to implement the laws made by parliament.
Farhatullah Babar said although Nawaz Sharif was largely responsible for the situation created as a result of the latest SC verdict, he could not applaud the verdict as a triumph for anyone and as a member of parliament
he could not rejoice over it.
“The verdict has enlarged the scope of Articles 62 and 63 on one hand and weakened parliament by striking down a law passed by it on the other,” he added.
Responding to Babar’s remarks, the Senate chairman said that he had also been repeatedly warning against undermining of parliament.
“I had been expressing apprehensions for quite some time but no one paid heed to it. If any untoward situation arises, we will all face it together. Parliament will play its due role to save the federation and advance democracy,” Rabbani said.
Mohammad Ali Saif of the MQM drew the attention of the House towards the speech of Chief Justice Saqib Nisar delivered at a lawyers’ gathering yesterday, declaring that lawyers were his soldiers, and said that it seemed that the chief justice was implying to say that the lawyers community would support him in case of a clash with the government.
He said that the CJP’s speech had reminded them of the time of the former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
“Such a behaviour and role is a danger for democracy,” the MQM senator said, stressing the need for amending the constitution for creation of a separate supreme court comprising impartial judges to take up matters related to the constitution.
Ghous Mohammad Niazi was the only PML-N senator who spoke on the issue, terming the SC’s verdict “regrettable”.
He said on one hand, a military dictator was allowed to leave the country and on the other hand, an elected prime minister was thrown out. In an apparent reference to the recent remarks of the chief justice that the constitution was above parliament, Niazi said that “parliament is the mother of the constitution”.
