Giving ruling over the reference filed by lawyer Muhammad Azhar Siddique and others, the speaker said he was not bound to forward the same to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for a decision. Copy of the said ruling is available with The Express Tribune.
The speaker said that the National Assembly’s August 29 debate reveals that the allegations in the reference are factually incorrect.
“Reference being legally and factually baseless does not result in any disqualification under Article 63(2) of the constitution and therefore, I decline to refer it the ECP”, the speaker said in his ruling.
The ruling stated that Article 62 applies on a person to be elected or chosen as a member of Parliament prior to elections.
The speaker, while referring to Article 66 (1) of the constitution, said that any statement by a member of sitting Parliament member calls for an internal proceeding.
Sadiq also said that the same article provides complete protection to a member of Parliament from any proceeding for anything said by him at any forum.
Article 66(1) of the constitution says there shall be freedom of speech in Parliament and no member shall be be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in Parliament
“The qualifications for membership of Parliament as laid down in Article 62 of the constitution are qualifications of the nature. Therefore, no notice can be given or entertained by the Speaker with reference to Article 62 of the constitution as prayed, after the member has been elected by electorate,” the ruling stated.
Meanwhile, during the hearing of PM's disqualification case, the bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja raised a question about the mechanism of invoking Article 62 and 63 in any matter.
The copy can be viewed below:
COMMENTS (14)
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You see the problem is Ayaz Sadiq 'won' the elections from a most rigged constituency himself. That is why he was chosen Speaker other wise it would have been either Saad Rafiq or the other Khawaja.Both have same qualification.
This is a civilian dictatorship where the PM is not answerable to anybody.
yaaah...democracy is saved!!!
Dont blame him, he is just performing his real duty and brootherhood
The first couple of pics looked as if they have landed from some alien land.
Well, it was obvious.
All the more reason he should step down prior to audit of the 2013 polls.
This "democracy" is all about looting the nation. Hardly matters whether it is "elected", pmln or ppp... I do not see anything about justice, fair management or even knowledge.
In other words, you can lie as much as you like in parliament, which looks like the norm.
It requires admission of truth, sense of responsibility and doing the right thing that is missing with the bunch. You drag them out but they want keep crawling back in. They will go till the end of universe finding excuses to remain in power cuz them're wealth n power hungry - not good governance. Thats why we say it loud n clear 'Go Nawaz Go'
Badsha Salamat se wafadari ka saboot,
In times of PPP govt we used to hear from PMLN lawmakers that there is no immunity to both PM Gillani and Pres Zardari. They also used to give precedences from Islamic history and tell us that if Hazrat Umer and Hazrat Ali can be questioned in courts why not our rullers? Now when it comes to their own govt PMLN adopted 180 degree policy shift, just want to make this nation fool. "Go Nawaz Go"
In other words...."how can I do anything against King sharif?".
His crime......his parliament......his speaker......his court......his judge......his shame.......but does that matter ?