The Supreme Court of Pakistan once again postponed the hearing on the deputy speaker’s ruling till 11:30 am, April 6, while asking the petitioners and respondents to complete their arguments tomorrow.
“We will try to announce a verdict tomorrow,” said the Chief Justice of Pakistan while concluding the second day of the trial on Tuesday.
The five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, is hearing multiple petitions filed by the opposition parties challenging PM Imran Khan’s decision to dissolve parliament and call for early elections while blocking the no-confidence motion.
No Interference of Court in Policy Matters
In Tuesday’s hearing, the Chief Justice, Umar Ata Bandial said that the Supreme Court would not interfere in matters of state and foreign policy and would only determine the legality of National Assembly (NA) Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling on a no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“We prefer that a decision be taken on this matter only,” CJP Bandial said. “We want to see if the court can review the ruling of the deputy speaker.”
“We don’t want to indulge in policy matters.” He added.
Court asks for record of no-confidence proceedings
Earlier today, on the second day of the trial, the top court sought the record of National Assembly proceedings conducted on the no-trust motion filed against interim PM Imran Khan.
At one point, during the hearing the CJP asked whether a debate was held on the no-confidence move, to which the PML-N counsel replied that it was not.
Justice Bandial also asked whether a majority of lawmakers were present in Parliament when the no-confidence resolution against the prime minister was tabled, noting that it required the support of 20pc of the lawmakers.
Additionally, Justice Mandokhail added that the real question was whether the deputy speaker’s ruling was legal or illegal. “The real issue is to examine the constitutional status of the ruling,” he said.
