A constitutional petition has been filed at the Supreme Court’s Lahore registry seeking the disqualification of National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza over her decision not to send a disqualification reference against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to the Election Commission.
The speaker ruled on May 24 that there was no question of the prime minister’s disqualification since the contempt charges framed against him by the apex court were not relatable to the grounds mentioned in Article 63(g)(1) of the Constitution.
Petitioner Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique, through counsel AK Dogar, submitted that the speaker, by declining to send the reference to the Election Commission, had acted as a court, which was a violation of the Constitution. He also accused her of violating her oath of office.
The petitioner submitted that the speaker was empowered by Article 63(2) only to decide whether a question arose with respect to the disqualification of a member of the National Assembly, not to decide whether a member had been disqualified or not.
In this instance, he said, the speaker was not even empowered to examine whether such a question arose or not because the Supreme Court’s judgment in the prime minister’s contempt case was before her.
He said Article 63(1)(g) of the Constitution was “self-executory” and did not need to be implemented through subordinate legislation or reference by a speaker. He said this issue has been settled by the Supreme Court through a judgement in 1963.
He said after the Supreme Court’s order, the speaker should have stopped the prime minister from sitting in the parliament and participating in its proceedings. He said that she had disobeyed the Supreme Court judgment.
He asked the court to declare the speaker’s ruling illegal, without lawful authority and of no legal effect. He said that the speaker’s violations of the Constitution had disqualified her from the office under Article 62(1)(f). He asked the court to suspend Mirza as speaker as well as her assembly membership till the petition is disposed of.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2012.
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How shameful is it that the country as whole is gripped with just 1 issue whether PM Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani stands disqualified or not? I think Supreme Court should not have shown courtesy towards PM and he should have been sent behind bars for 6 months time which was very much possible and even SYRG had been apprehensive to be imprisoned for half a year but when SC sentenced him for about less than a minute SYRG has become a hero and he is adamant not to quit in any case. Had he appealed to SC against his conviction there was a possibility that SC has enhanced conviction and thus Barrister Aitaza Ahsan who taught me law and defended PM in the contempt case did not feel prudent to appeal. Will sky split apart if PM goes off or will sky split apart if we just forget it and devote our energies towards making Pakistan a truly strong country? Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait
I think we should stop dragging the rulings of speaker and proceeding of the parliament in to the courts. This not only undermines the sovereignty of the parliament but also wastes the precious time of courts. Unfortunately courts have become that much interested in Politics and day to day affairs of parliament and executive that they accept all such petitions. If someone have problem with ruling of speaker he must come on the floor of the parliament rather than issuing statement sitting outside. Mian Brothers are habitual of such cheap tactics but soon they are going to learn a lesson.