All orders and actions initiated by PM, president subject to court order: Pakistan SC

Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial has said all orders and actions initiated by the Pakistan prime minister and president regarding the dissolution of the National Assembly will be subject to the court's order.

He took suo motu notice of the current situation in Pakistan following the dismissal of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan by National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri and its subsequent dissolution.

The spokesperson of the apex court confirmed the development Sunday (3 April) as weeks-long political turmoil in Pakistan reached its climax, reports The Dawn.

Suri, who was chairing the session, dismissed the motion in a shock move, terming it against Article 5 of the Constitution, which states that "loyalty to the State is the basic duty of every citizen".

At the outset of the session, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI's) Fawad Chaudhry took the floor and referred to the clause, reiterating the premier's earlier claims that a foreign conspiracy was behind the move to oust the government.

"On March 7, our official ambassador was invited to a meeting attended by the representatives of other countries. The meeting was told that a motion against PM Imran was being presented," he said, noting that this occurred a day before the opposition formally filed the no-trust move.

"We were told that relations with Pakistan were dependent on the success of the no-confidence motion. We were told that if the motion fails, then Pakistan's path would be very difficult. This is an operation for a regime change by a foreign government," he alleged.

The minister questioned how this could be allowed and called on the deputy speaker to decide the constitutionality of the no-trust move.

At that, Suri noted that the motion was presented on March 8 and should be according to the law and the Constitution. "No foreign power shall be allowed to topple an elected government through a conspiracy," he said, adding that the points raised by the minister were "valid".

He dismissed the motion, ruling that it was "contradictory" to the law, the Constitution and the rules.

Angered by the NA proceedings, opposition parties decided to hold their own meeting in the lower house of parliament with PML-N's Ayaz Sadiq sitting on the speaker's seat.

They conducted their own proceedings with 195 lawmakers voting in favour of the no-confidence motion, according to PPP's Sherry Rehman.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said that Imran Khan and all characters involved in the "conspiracy" against the nation are guilty of high treason and should be tried under Article 6 of the Constitution.

He warned that anyone involved in any wrongdoing with the country and desecration of the Constitution will be taken to task.

Meanwhile, the opposition leader of the Pakistan parliament Shahbaz Sharif compared the dissolution of the national assembly and the rejection of the no-trust motion against PM Imran Khan to high treason.

In a tweet, the PML-N president claimed that PM Imran Khan had pushed the country into anarchy.

Shahbaz Sharif tweeted, "It is nothing short of a high treason. IK has pushed the country into anarchy. Niazi & his cohort will not be allowed to go scot-free. There will be consequences for blatant & brazen violation of the Constitution. Hope SC will play it's role to uphold the Constitution."

Commenting on the matter, Abdul Moiz Jaferii, one of Pakistan's top lawyers said, "What the deputy speaker did today was not simply an absurd misapplication of a Constitutional Article."

It was the culmination of several attempts by members of the PTI to similarly misapply and publicly misinterpret and misrepresent the Constitution to their own designs, he added.

Advocate Salman Akram Raja said the opposition is now left with no option but to approach the Supreme Court.

"In my view, this is an unconstitutional ruling given by the speaker in response to a Constitutional move," he told Hum News.

He opined that a government statement surfaced all of a sudden wherein it termed the no-confidence motion illegal and subsequently adjourned the session.