Islamabad: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday approved the review petition of article 63-A while annulled the verdict of interpretation of article 63-A
The SC pronounced the verdict with the majority of 5-0.
The SC larger bench of five Judges headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Amin Uddin Khan, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Mazhar Alam Miakhail and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan heard the review petition filed by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) today.
The SC has issued a brief judgment of the case while a detailed decision will be issued later.
During the hearing today the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) counsel Ali Zafar had boycotted the hearing on the order of the party’s founding chairman Imran Khan.
Ali Zafar apprised “Imran Khan said the formation of the bench is not right adding we will not become part of the hearing.”
The PTI counsel further informed the court that Imran Khan himself wanted to give argument to the court in the case.
The CJ designated Ali Zafar as the court assistant in the case.
The CJ remarked “Move forward in the case as you know how the court works while Justice Qazi Faez Issa said to leave making joke of the courts,”
The issue at hand owes its origins to a reference filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in the SC back in 2022, seeking the apex court’s opinion on Article 63(A) to curbing the menace of defections, purification of the electoral process, and democratic accountability.
The court, via a 3-2 judgement, had then announced the verdict against defections and barred lawmakers from going against their party’s policy lines when voting in the parliament.
Three judges — then-CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Munib — had voted in favour whereas Justice Mandokhail and Justice Mazhar disagreed with the verdict.
The SCBA then filed a plea moving the apex court to take back its opinion on the verdict’s paragraph about not counting the votes of dissidents by reviewing the interpretation made on May 17, 2022.
It maintained that the dissidents should only be de-seated but their votes are supposed to be counted as per the Constitution of Pakistan.
“The apex court’s opinion about not counting the dissident’s votes is against the Constitution and equal to interference in it,” the SCBA stated in the plea.
Now today the SC has withdrawn the interpretation of 63-A and annulled the verdict of 2022.
