NA speaker’s ruling is absolute: Qureshi

Former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday that the National Assembly speaker has the power of giving a ruling and it was absolute.

The former minister’s remarks came while talking to the media in the Supreme Court where a hearing regarding Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s April 3 ruling was underway by a five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial.

“Important point is the ruling of the deputy speaker,” Qureshi said. “Article 69 is clear which says to keep the affairs of the Parliament in the Parliament. Every state institution has its own responsibility. The joint opposition says the deputy speaker violated the Constitution which is their opinion but, our opinion is different from theirs.”

The former minister added that the deputy speaker did not violate the Constitution and Article 69 of the Constitution protects the ruling of the NA speaker.

“We have taken the oath of the Constitution. We must abide by it. Going beyond that is neither our policy nor our thinking,” he said.

He said that there was a communique, in which our position was of ‘external interference in Pakistan's political system to change the government’. This issue was discussed in the National Security Committee, Qureshi added.

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“An immediate demarche was sent from the Foreign Office regarding the communique,” he said. “If the opposition had any doubts about this then they would have come to the National Security meeting to raise their point.”

He said that the NA deputy speaker had ruled that this was a new situation and it could not be allowed. ‘One way is to investigate it,” he added.

Qureshi added that there was a clear threat of [diplomatic] isolation if the Imran Khan government remained in power.

“The Judicial Commission can know the facts. I, as the foreign minister, say that demarcation is made,” the PTI vice-chair said.

Furthermore, Qureshi added that the opposition was confused and they were pushing the country into a constitutional crisis to achieve their goals.

“For three and a half years, they have been chanting that the country needs new elections. PPP completed 5 years, PML-N completed 5 years but they did not allow us to complete our term. This is a very serious situation. We are waiting for the decision of the judiciary. The only solution is a fresh mandate. The people have to decide in whose hands the reins of the country should be given,” he said.

In response to the journalist's question about whether 200 public representatives were traitors, Qureshi said that it would have to be investigated.