Judicial coup: Maryam

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz has said that the Supreme Court verdict is “shocking for lawyers, litigants, media and nation.”

In his tweets on Tuesday, he said: “Had there been a full court, justice would have been done and seen to be done.”

In another tweet, he said: “We would not compromise on supremacy of Constitution and parliament. The Constitution has entrusted state powers to parliament, executive and judiciary and it has bound all institutions to function in their constitutional domains. No institution can undermine the other.”

Reacting to the SC decision, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz declared it as a judicial coup. In a message on twitter, she said: “Murder of justice not accepted.”

Maryam Nawaz also retweeted the tweet of Farhatullah Babar, in which he stated: “A new political philosophy in the making: Constitution, not parliament, is supreme and Constitution is not what’s written in it but what the SC says it is. Massive shift of power taking place from elected to un-elected. Parliamentarians think about it. Wake up.”

In his reaction, former Punjab chief minister Hamza Shehbaz said that the principle of neutrality had been ignored by rejecting the request for a full court, adding that this was not justice at all. He said after giving the decision to hang Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the court had expressed regret but it could not compensate for the loss.

He said that his politics was based on one principle and that was to serve the people. He said it was not a defeat but a step towards victory. He said the whole country saw how every effort was made to deprive them of the legitimate right to rule from day one through unconstitutional measures.

Hamza said that he was happy that despite all the difficulties, he did not back down from the mission of providing relief to the people with programmes like cheap flour, free medicines and electricity in the shortest possible time.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb questioned if there was a difference in the interpretation of Imran Khan’s letter as the party chief and Chaudhry Shujaat’s letter as party chief. In a statement, she said the question was why not a full court for hearing the petitions against the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker’s ruling and why two separate verdicts on similar letters. “Why different interpretations on similar letters of Imran Khan and Chaudhry Shujaat,” she asked.

She said if 25 dissident members of the PTI were not allowed to vote on the letter of Imran Khan and they were de-seated and their votes were not counted, why after Chaudhry Shujaat’s letter, his party MPAs should be allowed to vote and why their votes should be counted.

The minister said that the problem now was not whose government should be in Punjab, real problem was now of the Constitution and justice.

PPP Secretary-General Farhatullah Babar tweeted: “If this verdict had been delivered by a full bench, it would have enhanced the image of judiciary, there would have been no finger pointing and criticism and at the same time political instability and tensions lessened.”

He said: “But alas, it was not to be. Exclusion of other judges highly puzzling.” In another tweet, he said that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had claimed that if asked by Imran Khan, he will dissolve the Punjab Assembly in a minute.

Babar said: “Now if both provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pukhtunkhaw are dissolved, early elections will be distinct possibility. Let’s see but hope there’s no U turn on it.”