Parliament is the legislative body. Courts only interpret. Parliament has the power to legislate where it feels its powers are being interfered with or the Constitution is being rewritten. It is the power of Parliament to make constitutions and laws,” Pakistan Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has said.
He was speaking about the government wanting to bring in a new law to overturn a Supreme Court verdict of July 12. The 8-5 majority verdict, delivered by a Full Court, was widely interpreted as a victory for Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI). The judges had said that despite losing its iconic `Bat’ symbol, PTI continued to be a political party. A couple of judges had said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had erred in interpreting the SC verdict when it deprived PTI of its electoral symbol.
The petition before the Supreme Court had been filed by Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) which independents aligned to PTI had joined. These independents, essentially PTI candidates who had fought on different symbols, had joined SIC to claim “proportionate share’’ of reserved seats. However, the ECP had initially refused to allocated seats to the SIC/PTI and its decision was upheld by the Peshawar High Court. However, the apex court had overturned the high court ruling.
The Supreme Court verdict had put paid to the PML-N government’s efforts to cobble a two-third majority in the National Assembly. It was also a huge setback for both PML-N of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PPP which is supporting the government from outside. A two-third majority would have given a free hand to the government to have its way on many issues.
Ever since the passage of July 12 verdict by the apex court, the ECP has found ways to delay, if not outright stall, the implementation of this verdict. To avoid being found to be ranged against the apex court, the ECP has recognised one block of 38 independents in the National Assembly as affiliated to the PTI. However, it has found ways of effectively stalling the recognition of a block of 41 independents PTI members. This has, so far, prevented PTI from emerging as the single largest party in the NA.
The Supreme Court verdict has a cascading effect and it will impact representation in provincial assemblies also significantly. The ECP will have to allot a significant number of reserved seats to PTI in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies to PTI. This too is being considered detrimental to the interests of the government as it swells the ranks of the main opposition parties.
At one time, barely a week ago, the PML-N government had started talking about banning PTI using Article 6 of the Constitution. However, after some initial bravado, the government backed out of that move. The main reason for the government backtracking on ban was the PPP’s open declaration that it did not support this move. Some of its most prominent leaders, considered close to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his father President Asif Zardari, spoke against the government on the issue.
On Wednesday, a committee of the National Assembly approved a bill proposing amendments to the election law. These amendments suggest that a political party should not be allotted reserved seats (of women and non-Muslim candidates) if it has failed to submit its lists within the prescribed time. This Bill, if passed into a law in the near future, is clearly aimed at PTI and runs contrary to what the Supreme Court has said.
The government has clarified that this law will be applicable retrospectively and apply to the February 8 elections. The PTI has said that this amounts to pitting Parliament against the Supreme Court. It is not clear what will be the stance of the Supreme Court on this proposed law. But one thing is sure that this proposal, if passed by Parliament, will end up being challenged in the apex court by the PTI.
