Finally, Pakistani SC shows some backbone!!!
Lawyers term observation as silver lining
ISLAMABAD: A full bench of the Supreme Court on Monday observed that laws promulgated under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) had no legal status without validation by parliament.
Hearing an election matter, Justice Qazi Muhammad Farooq observed: “The laws promulgated by the executive authority under the Provincial Constitution Order (PCO) have no legal or constitutional status unless and until the coming elected parliament validates them.”
The bench, comprising Justice Qazi Mohammed Farooq, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar heard appeal and petition of an election matter from Balochistan. The apex court allowed Nawabzada Baloj Murri, a candidate for Balochistan Assembly seat PB-23 Kohlu to contest the elections.
The court dismissed the petitions filed by the former provincial minister and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam (PML-QA) candidate from the same constituency, Mehr Mohabat Khan Murri and the State, seeking ineligibility of Mehr Baloj. Advocate Muhammad Aslam Chishti appeared for the appellant, while Advocate Ashraf Khan Tanoli represented the State and the PML-QA nominee.
The bench allowed Nawab Marri to contest the general election on October 10, with the directions that if he won the elections and the allegation proved, he could be disqualified by approaching the election appellate tribunal.
Former advocate-general of Balochistan Ashraf Khan Tanoli contended that Mehr Baloj had fake academic documents and also he was dismissed from the government services on charges of misconduct and corruption.
He pleaded to the court to declare Marri as ineligible for contesting the general elections because his two-year post-retirement period had also not been completed and for this reason too, he could not contest elections.
Nawabzada Baloj Murri’s nomination papers were rejected by the Election Tribunal and later the Balochistan High Court also upheld the decision. The SC bench, however, allowed him to contest October 10 polls.
Our correspondent adds from Lahore: Lawyers have termed the observations of the Supreme Court as silver lining in the darkest era of the constitutional history of the country.
Commenting on the observations of the SC, the Vice Chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council, Chaudhary Muhammad Ashraf Wahla said it had been a considered opinion of the bar that the present government had no legal powers of amending the constitution. He said through a number of resolutions were adopted by the lawyers representatives at different occasions, they were of the firm opinion government should not go beyond the time limit set by the court for transferring the powers to the civil administration.
Commenting on these observations, leading lawyer and Chairman of Istqlal Party, Syed Manzoor Hussain Gilani said President Musharraf, before infringing upon the constitution, should have decided his own status. Musharraf had been retired from his office by the president Muhammad Rafiq Tarar and his retirement orders were signed. Even if he was not retired, he could be considered retired as he had attained the maximum age limit for retirement from the office of Chief of the Army Staff.
Member Pakistan Bar Council, Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari said almost two month back, the lawyers had taken a unanimous stance they would not take any of the constitutional issue to the Courts as these courts had become instruments in the hand of Army Junta just to legalise all the illegal and unconstitutional acts of present regime. He said LFO, which was being imposed through the so called presidential orders, was basically a move to rewrite the constitution and it was obvious from the fact that the country would be governed by the LFO, 2002 and not by the unanimously adopted Constitution of 1973. He said following the request of the lawyers community, all the political parties had agreed not to ratify the constitutional amendments introduced by Musharraf