Ex-PM moves SC to disqualify PTI dissidents for lifetime

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has requested the Supreme Court of Pakistan to disqualify PTI dissident members of parliament for lifetime.

The PTI Chairman, Imran Khan, on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court through Advocate Babar Awan, praying the court to declare that any sort of defection will amount to imposing a lifetime ban on contesting elections, in the interest of justice. He has made the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Federation of Pakistan and the Ministry of Law and Justice secretary as respondents. He questioned whether an act of defection commonly called floor crossing is not against the constitutional explicit prohibition in form of disqualification as stated in Article 63-A of the Constitution and all members of national or provincial assemblies take oath to abide by the Constitution, as stated in the Third Schedule of the Constitution.

The petitioner submitted that a member, who for any reason opts to leave a parliamentary party, is first required to resign from his existing seat in the assembly instead of committing defection, as provided in Article 63-A of the Constitution, by changing his loyalty in favour of another political party actuated by a hidden motive. Such a member cannot be treated as sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, Sadiq and Amin and should stand disqualified for life. He submitted that the vote cast by party dissidents should not be counted and be considered controversial as well.

The PTI chairman submitted that the apex court has repeatedly ruled that the Constitution is not a random collection of legal principles but a fundamental normative document which provides a comprehensive scheme for enforcement of fundamental rights of citizens and democratic governance by people through their duly-elected representatives acting for their welfare rather than enrichment of numbers. He contended that the true spirit of the Constitution inserting anti-defection provisions cannot be redeemed by treating the vote of defecting members as “challenged or disputed” liable to be excluded from final counts till the determination of the issue of defection under Article 63-A of the Constitution.

He submitted that the apex court has observed in many cases that defection or floor crossing is nothing short of a disease of cancer to the entire body of politics and it destroys the spirit of democratic governance, therefore, there can be no valid or cogent reason or justification to treat this menace by imposing a lifetime ban in terms of Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and such members must never be allowed to return to parliament.