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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Thursday filed its response to the presidential reference submitted to the Supreme Court (SC) seeking the opinion of the apex court on Article 63(A) of the Constitution ahead of the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In the response, the SCBA stated that voting was an individual right of a Member of National Assembly (MNA) instead of a political party’s collective right under Article 95. “Every MNA is independent in using their right to vote and there is no disqualification over voting against party policy in Article 63A.”
“No MNA can be restrained from voting under Article 63A and every vote cast under Article 95 is counted,” the SCBA said, adding that the public runs the government system through their elected representatives.
‘Article 63A undemocratic’
Meanwhile, JUI-F also submitted its reply over the reference, declaring Article 63A “undemocratic”. The response submitted by JUI-F leader and senior advocate Kamran Murtaza said the opinion sought by the president under Article 186 in this particular case was “beyond the scope of the constitution as such be returned unanswered”.
“The reference seems to imply that the prime minister, president and NA speaker have always been Sadiq and Amin (honest and trustworthy) and will always remain so,” it added.
Moreover, the JUI-F said that “it is not necessary that the opinion on the reference is given before polling for the vote of no confidence as the matter will eventually end up in the apex court if a disqualification case is filed against an MNA.”
It said that SC’s opinion before the voting would make the forum of the Election Commission of Pakistan ineffective. The response further stated said that PTI is being run by “selected officials” since there hasn’t been party election in a while.
“The selected officials cannot direct the MNAs to vote or not to vote under Article63A,” JUI’s reply said. It said that the National Assembly speaker cannot be given the authority to discard the MNAs’ votes therefore the court should refrain from ending the supremacy of the Parliament.
‘Premature and unnecessary move’: PML-N
Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said in its response that Article 63A and Article 95 are clear and every lawmaker has the right to vote.
The party seconded JUI’s argument that the vote of every MNA will be counted and that filing of the presidential reference is a premature and unnecessary move.
The apex court will hear the presidential reference on Article 63A filed by the government, today. All the ways leading to Red Zone, including D-Chowk, Serena Chowk, NADRA Chowk and Merit Chowk have been barricaded with heavy police deployment.
