PTI rejects apex court's 63-A review ruling

Raja, Alvi fear horse trading in parliament

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE:

Senior leadership of the PTI rejected the Supreme Court decision on a review petition regarding interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution on Thursday, warning that the decision would pave the way for horse trading in parliament.

In their separate media talks, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram, and former president Arif Alvi termed the apex court's ruling "an invitation to sin" therefore, the people must raise their voice against it.

Earlier on Thursday a five-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa nullified the Supreme Court's previous decision of 2022 regarding Article 63-A and ruled that defecting lawmakers' votes in parliament should indeed be counted.

The ruling was delivered on multiple review petitions, challenging a 3-2 decision of a five-member bench, led by then Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, which had declared that the votes cast by defecting lawmakers as invalid.

The 2022 ruling had come in response to a presidential reference filed by then-president Arif Alvi. The majority decision was challenged by the SCBA and others. The Supreme Court heard the heard for three days.

Speaking a press conference after the decision, PTI Secretary General Raja claimed that Supreme Court decision had allowed horse trading. "People should come out and raise their voices against this," Raja told the reporters.

Raja said that the government wanted to amend the Constitution and for that it seeks to PTI members. "With this amendment, you can suppress any one. And all this is being done in the name of national security," Raja said. "No legislation gives the right to usurp rights," he added.

"The consequences of this constitutional amendment will be borne by all. If a military court orders arrest, even the high court would not be able to do anything about it. All this is part of a package of constitutional amendments for which the Supreme Court has paved the way."

About the proposal of creating a federal constitutional court, Raja said that a "puppet court" was being created, and it was quite clear who would be its chief justice. "We congratulate Maulana Fazlur Rehman [the head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam] for not siding with the government," he added.

Reacting to the Supreme Court's Thursday ruling, former president Dr Arif Alvi has castigated Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faiz Isa for allegedly creating an atmosphere of floor crossing in his "lust to prolong his tenure.

"I have never seen such a chief justice throughout my life. Justice Isa has damaged the country more than Justice Munir [the architect of Doctrine of Necessity]," Dr Alvi said while talking with the media at an anti-terrorism court where he met with PTI leaders facing May 9, 2023 rioting cases.

According to Alvi, cruelty was already at full swing but CJ Isa has now also paved the way for selling and purchasing of people "as once slaves were sold in America". He said there was no urgency to address the Article 63-A case but Justice Isa did that to prolong his tenure. He said there was a need to bring legislation with regard to lower judiciary to dispense justice to the needy masses rather than prolonging each other's tenures.

The former president claimed that police officials were the responsible for creating anarchy and violence at PTI's processions which otherwise are peaceful. (WITH INPUT FROM OUR LAHORE CORRESPONDENT)