Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, hearing PTI’s petition against NAB amendments, questioned if fighting legislation in court instead of parliament was weakening the legislature.

Hearing a petition filed by Imran Khan against amendments made to the NAB law, the chief justice said that the court will ask Imran why he chose not to fight the bill in parliament.

The chief justice said that the parliament represented the political will of the people, so was it really appropriate to boycott it. “An MNA is the representative of the people of a constituency and is responsible for protecting their trust in him,” the chief justice said.

The government’s lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan said that Imran Khan’s PTI had enough strength in the parliament to defeat the bill in a joint sitting. The chief justice wondered if a person could approach the court after himself boycotting the legislation.

Justice Bandial said that though there was a precedent of boycotting parliaments throughout the world, it needed to be seen if it was appropriate. He also said that every leader uses the constitution to justify their political strategy.

The court also revisited the debate of how parliamentary amendments could be questioned in court on the basis of public interest.

Mahdoom Ali Khan argued that if the court chose to pass a judgement on the NAB law, every bill passed by the parliament would invite litigation.