On Tuesday, during the hearing of the case related to the rolling of the Deputy Speaker in the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Omar Ata Bandial said that they want to settle the case soon, the formation of caretaker government has been stopped due to the case. A five-member larger bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Omar Ata Bandial heard the suo motu notice taken on the matter and petitions of various parties.
At the beginning of today’s hearing, one of the petitioners, a woman, came to the rostrum and said that if the ambassador to the United States, Asad Amjad, was called, everything would come to light. The Chief Justice stopped the women petitioners from speaking and said that he would listen to the political parties.
PPP leader Senator Raza Rabbani at the beginning of the arguments said that the statement of the Election Commission has come in the media that elections are not possible in 3 months. The Chief Justice said that we also want a speedy decision but we will hear the views of all parties. Raza Rabbani said that the court has to see to what extent the parliamentary proceedings are exempted, what happened can only be termed as civilian martial law, the system has prepared its own alternative which is unconstitutional. Raza Rabbani said that the rolling of the Speaker was illegal, the no-confidence motion could not be ended without a vote, the voting process was necessary under Article 95.
Continuing his arguments, he said that in this regard, I have referred to Article 6 of the Constitution, voting is necessary after the notice issued for voting on the no-confidence motion, voting is a constitutional command. He further added that the letter was used as a statement against the no-confidence motion and an external conspiracy was used as a reason to make a statement against the no-confidence motion. Raza Rabbani said that the meeting of the National Assembly for the no-confidence motion had already been convened late and adjourned the meeting on March 25 after mere prayers whereas it had not happened in the past.
He said that the meeting was adjourned till April 3 without any discussion. When the voting was to be held on April 3, Fawad Chaudhry brought a letter on the point of order in the assembly and external conspiracy while this component was not on the agenda of the meeting.
Raza Rabbani said that the no-confidence motion was approved on March 28 but the meeting was adjourned. He told the court that the deputy speaker had read out the rolling and found all the members guilty of violating Article 5. The deputy speaker had not even announced that detailed rolling would be issued. Not told He did not say that there was no court order before the Deputy Speaker nor any inquiry report on the conspiracy. Raza Rabbani further said that it was wrong for the Deputy Speaker to declare the opposition members as traitors without any evidence and proof. The Deputy Speaker did not take action under the constitution. Options are limited. He said that the Deputy Speaker could not give any rolling except voting on the motion of no-confidence. The rolling of the Speaker was illegal. The Speaker was bound to take action on the motion of no-confidence.