‘That’s illegal’: Pak legal experts after President dissolves parliament

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s prominent legal minds called Sunday’s dismissal of a no-trust vote against PM Imran Khan and the President’s dissolution of the

National Assembly

unconstitutional, saying that these have pushed the country into a major constitutional crisis.

Lawyer Salahuddin Ahmed said parliament deputy speaker

Qasim Suri

’s action was blatantly illegal. “The entire proceedings smacked of malafide intent, with the information minister speaking for two minutes, before the deputy speaker summarily declared the motion illegal and prorogued the session,” he said.

He said the speaker has no jurisdiction to issue a verdict on the legality of a motion or legislation. The speaker’s job, he said, is to perform a head count and then declare a motion passed or otherwise, accordingly.

According to him, the Supreme Court will likely declare the speaker’s ruling illegal, which in turn, would strike down the President Arif Alvi’s dissolution of parliament. The opposition has filed a petition in the SC and chief justice

Umar Ata Bandial

has convened a hearing into the constitutional question.

Like Ahmed, barrister Aitzaz Ahsan too called deputy speaker’s ruling a violation of the Constitution. He said the speaker can dismiss a motion if he considered it in violation of the law and rules. “But once it is presented on the floor of the House, it is elevated to a resolution and becomes a property of parliament,” Ashan said.

According to advocate Salman Akram Raja, the opposition will have to wait for the SC’s order. “This is an unconstitutional ruling given by the speaker in response to a constitutional move,” he said and cited instances from across the world about courts taking notice of government rulings based on malafide intent, as it happened in Britain and EU nations.

Legal expert Reema Omer tweeted that there are no “ifs and buts” and the “speaker’s ruling is blatantly unconstitutional”. “Imran Khan has no authority to advise the President to dissolve the National Assembly. Dissolving the assembly on the advice of a person who has no authority to do so has no constitutional basis,” Omer said.