The binding interpretation
IT has been a permanent drawback in the colonial system of justice that it does not allow unambiguous and binding decisions on matters of consequential effect where clearly the decision given leads to an automatic logical follow-up, rather than leaving room for yet another interpretation; delaying and precipitating matters rather than solving them.
The case in point right now is a well-argued 5-member Apex Court split judgment over reference caused to be filed by the President of Pakistan seeking interpretation of applicability of Article 63-A of the Constitution designed to prevent floor-crossing and defection of members of a political party in favour of another.
The belated decision has held such votes as invalid and referred the matter of nature and tenure of disqualification to be settled by Parliament and the Election Commission.
Notwithstanding the known tilt and interpretation of the Supreme Court Bar President Ahsan Bhoon and former Attorney General Irfan Qadir whose views ever since being hired for the current government have lost credibility of a neutral tender, even though the judgment is a split one, it has clearly handed down verdict against defecting members; which should automatically have been applied to members of the Punjab Assembly who voted against their party, thereby rendering Hamza Shehbaz’s election as null and void, as against eventual election of his father Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister, whose PDM had carried the vote of no-confidence against Imran Khan at the Centre on the score of support from some of Khan’s coalition partners alone; not requiring the turncoats within PTI to vote against their Party even though they had announced their support to its opposition, and technically saved them the axe.
On the score of this judgment, the federal legislators were also rendered unable to defect and were safe unless they wilfully attract disqualification by voting for their party opposition.
But Chief Minister of Punjab should automatically step down rather than be asked to do so through a specific decree, which looks highly unlikely given the traditional resistance to lawful order by the polarized political divide in the country.
What is worse is that egged on by over-rated analysts and political pundits, having needlessly toppled the PTI government and attracting all the flak on the political and economic front which deservedly Imran Khan’s team ought to have gathered in its remaining term, the PDM finds itself deep in soup, and most likely to suffer its negative fallout in inevitable forthcoming general election unless they quickly wash their hands off the responsibility.
Imran Khan appears to have received a rare shot of resuscitation by the PDM act and placed him in the driving seat back so quickly, not just on the wave of his manufactured or real existential threat and foreign meddling against his person generating mammoth public support for his freedom mantra, but also on the score of the judgment effectively bottling up any future blackmailing through desertions.
He has suddenly thrown his entire opposition on the defensive; in the Punjab fending to save its painstakingly installed government which required several rounds to find an oath-taker, and now set to be sent packing if not automatically, then through a reference by the PTI or by the Speaker requiring it to seek a vote of confidence.
The same fate would now await the PDM Prime Minister and his vernacular team which now sat on a single vote majority minus the defectors, may be required to take a vote of confidence, with authentic reports that some coalition supporters of PTI were ready to switch back.
The ugly political unrest in the ensuing battle for power in Pakistan has not only brought political instability but economic disaster for the country which could have been partially stalled if not entirely averted.
It is my submission that had the Supreme Court anticipated the ensuing economic and political disaster, it could have addressed the Presidential Reference in the 19 days it had at its disposal between its filing and the staging of the vote of no-confidence instead of ordering it to be carried out on that specific date where in doing so, it acted beyond its mandate.
Still better it could have saved the impending chaos and instability by ordering the Speaker of the National Assembly to defer the vote of no-confidence against the PTI government pending decision on the Presidential Reference, and come up with a categorical decision in good time.
Had that happened, there would have been no dissolutions, brawls or the ugly scenes witnessed by the entire world, and the PTI government would have been allowed to sink or swim on the score of its own performance.
In hindsight, what was all this ado about by the PDM Opposition if according to them the entire election exercise of 2018 was rigged resulting in the installation of a selected government!
Why instead of resigning enmasse at the very outset and forcing a re-poll did it waste the precious four years of the country’s time resorting to meaningless protests and demos, while continuing to be part of the’ illegitimate order’ which it has now schemed to rule at the cost of the nation?
Where was the national press during this entire ordeal, the Press that still does not mind running ads by the Government out of the starved public exchequer against its adversaries over their respective outlets!
Lt Gen Khalid Naeem Lodhi (R) to me is the man of the moment who all concerned in Pakistan must not just listen to, but pay heed to his forthright, pragmatic analysis and selfless advice.
He was suggesting over a TV outlet the other day that at this critical juncture the Judiciary and the defence forces, the two key institutions commanding respect among the masses must join hands in forcing some sanity among political stakeholders to iron out a way forward and prioritise resolution of issues for the sake of the future of Pakistan, which this scribe would like styled as ‘Meesaaq-e-Pakistan’, the least Allama Iqbal’s vision and the Quaid-i-Azam’s dream deserves.
Let us stop playing with the destiny of this nation which is neither for sale to dynasty rule nor at the mercy of whims and fantasies of any adventurer.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
