Supreme Court To Focus Only On Deputy Speaker’s Ruling: CJP

Web Desk — The Supreme Court would only focus on the legality of National Assembly (NA) Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling on a no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, said Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial while hearing the case on the constitutional crisis on Tuesday.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) categorically stated that the court would not interfere in matters of state and foreign policy. The CJP had to say this while hearing arguments from PML-N’s counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan who had linked the no-confidence motion to a “foreign conspiracy” to topple the PTI government and ruled that the motion was contradictory to Article 5 of the Constitution.

When the CJP said the court would not interfere in policy matters and would focus on the deputy speaker’s ruling, the PML-N’s counsel proposed that the apex court may seek an “in-camera briefing about the foreign conspiracy from the intelligence chief.”

“Right now we are looking at the law and Constitution,” the CJP replied, adding that all the respondents would be told to focus on this matter at the moment.

“We prefer that a decision be taken on this matter only,” CJP Bandial said. “We want to see if the court can review the ruling of the deputy speaker.”

Justice Ahsan, too, said that the court only wanted to see constitutional matters for now.

Justice Munib Akhtar said the constitution is silent over the method of no-confidence.

The apex court also sought the record of National Assembly (NA) proceedings conducted on the no-confidence motion filed against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The five-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial later adjourned the hearing of the case till Wednesday.

As news channels have reported, the hearing on the constitutional crisis may prolong for another few days.