SC verdict on reserved seats beyond constitution: Tarar

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Atta Tarar Sunday said the court decision on reserve seats was written by going beyond the Constitution.

Speaking to the media here, Tarar said the detailed decision had not come despite passage of 15 days.

He said the Supreme Court’s two judges had raised very important points and it was very important to answer their objections with regard to the unilateral relief given to the PTI.

He said the decision of the majority judges will create a wrong impression.

The information tsar said the Supreme Court judges said the articles of the Constitution will have to be suspended to implement the decision.

“Will this not be a violation of Articles 62 and 63?” he questioned. Tarar said floor crossing could be done by justifying this decision in future and any member of the assembly could change the party. The dissenting note of two judges has cast a huge question mark on the majority’s decision.

Tarar said a review application had been filed on the decision of reserved seats, whether it will be possible to justify this decision by crossing the floor or changing the party in future.

He said the Sunni Ittehad Council chairman participated in the election as an independent candidate adding that it was also in the constitution of the Sunni Ittehad Council that no minority member could become a member of his party.

Meanwhile, PMLN parliamentary leader in the Senate and Chairman Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs Senator Irfan Siddiqui Sunday said the majority judgment of the apex court in the PTI reserved seats case contradicted the constitutional provisions and was controversial.

In a statement, he referred to the dissenting notes of the two judges of the larger bench and said the judgment was beyond jurisdiction.

He said the dissenting notes of the two judges, the opinions of leading constitutional experts, the recent resolution of the Pakistan Bar Council, and the unanimous decision of the Peshawar High Court’s five-member bench tell that the majority judgment was in conflict with the Constitution.

PTI founding leader Akbar S Babar Sunday said, “Their (judges’) dissenting note states ‘any order of the court which is not in consonance with the constitutional provisions is not binding upon any other constitutional organ of the state,” he said in a statement.

He was of the view that the judges in their verdicts must speak the law and the law only, as any other language encourages extraconstitutional adventurism.