The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has urged the apex court to constitute a full court for the determination of questions raised in the Presidential Reference seeking interpretation of Article 63A of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court had delisted the Presidential Reference hearing as Additional attorney general Aamir Rehman filed application for adjournment of the case because the appointment of Attorney General for Pakistan is awaited.

A five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail was slated to hear the Reference today (Tuesday) at 1pm.

The PTI on Monday filed a Civil Miscellaneous Application (CMA) through Advocate Babar Awan, which states that the five-member bench, which is hearing the Reference, has already heard and decided suo moto on Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling on no-confidence motion against ex-PM Imran Khan and passed short order on 07.04.2022.

President Arif Alvi on March 21 had filed a reference under Article 186 of the Constitution to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on questions of law of public importance.

The Reference mentioned that while choosing their representatives for the National and Provincial Assemblies, the voters evaluate various candidates on the basis of political ideology and manifesto of the party to which the candidates belong. They primarily vote for the political parties, which eventually form government at the national and/ or provincial level. The credentials of the individual candidate, though important, are rarely the determining factor in this exercise save in those exceptional cases where independent candidates outvote all other candidates including those contesting on party platforms. That still remains a rarity as overwhelmingly, it is the party vote bank which propels the majority of the candidates to the Assemblies.

It said that in the scheme of the Constitution the elected members of the Assemblies are not absolutely free agents of their will as such. Having been elected on party ticket, they are bound by party discipline and remain accountable as per the party manifesto.

Babar Awan submitted that the question involved in the Presidential Reference No 1/2022 is qua interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 and the matters allied thereto.

He stated that the bench in the short order dated 07.04.2022 gave certain observations regarding Article 63-A. Reference is made to and reliance is placed on the short order of this five members Bench for this CMA.

After disclosing the mind on the similar lego-constitutional points, proprietary principles of natural justice demand that the Reference No 1/2022 may be placed and heard before the full court, in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Intricate questions of independence and separation of judiciary from other state in situations and also the question of supremacy of the parliament as definitively enshrined in multiple articles of the Constitution and rules of business of the parliament itself are involved as questions of public importance, future of the parliamentary form of the government and preservation of the trichotomy of power.

He submitted that in the past, the apex court while hearing the matters arising out of 18th Constitutional Amendment and Presidential Reference filed to overturn the judgment in the case of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s assassination were heard by the full court in the Supreme Court, along with the number of other matters of the public interest and national interest. He requested that the CMA be allowed to uphold the dignity of all the constitutional institutions of Pakistan and to meet the ends of justice.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on April 12, 2022.