SC doesn’t interfere in policy matters, will focus on deputy speaker’s ruling: CJP

Islamabad-Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial said on Tuesday that the Supreme Court didn’t intrude in matters of state and foreign policy and would only determine the legitimacy of National Assembly (NA) Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling on a no- trust stir against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He said this while hearing arguments from PML-N’s counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan on the redundancy of a no- confidence stir against the high minister by the NA deputy speaker, who had linked the stir to a” foreign conspiracy”to trip the PTI government and ruled that the stir was antithetical to Composition 5 of the Constitution.
Latterly, the CJP had taken suo motu notice of the matter, following which a larger bench was formed to hear the case.
The five- member bench is headed by the CJP and includes Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail.
At moment’s hail, when the CJP said the court would not intrude in policy matters and would concentrate on the deputy speaker’s ruling, the PML-N’s counsel proposed that the apex court may seek an”in-camera briefing about the foreign conspiracy from the intelligence chief”.
” Right now we’re looking at the law and Constitution,”the CJP replied, adding that all the repliers would be told to concentrate on this matter at the moment.
“We prefer that a decision be taken on this matter only,”CJP Bandial said.”We want to see if the court can review the ruling of the deputy speaker.”
The court, he added, did not intrude in the state or foreign policy.”We do not want to indulge in policy matters.”
Justice Ahsan, too, said that the court only wanted to see indigenous matters for now.
The PML-N’s counsel, still, argued that the court could judicially review an illegal and unconstitutional move.
Then, Justice Akhtar said the NA and parochial assembly were masters of their separate houses.
The distribution of powers was also elevated in the constitution, the judge added.
“We’ve appertained to six court verdicts that clarify the governance of Composition 69,”Khan said adding that the speaker verified the deputy speaker’s ruling. He also questioned the transfer of power from the speaker to the deputy speaker.
Then, Justice Ahsan said Naeem Bukhari, the counsel for NA Speaker Asad Qaiser, would prop the court on the matter.
The court suspended the hail till 1130 am on Wednesday ( hereafter).