The parliament cannot make laws that are repugnant to the constitution. This was the chief justice the other day, speaking at a students’ function in Islamabad. Not a problematic statement, if taken out of context. If simply any law were to be kosher, it would lead to majoritarianism, which is an anathema to the spirit of democracy. And even if a law were to be repugnant to the constitution, before it were to be struck down, the constitution will usually take precedence over it. The way simple acts of parliament take precedence over regulations.
But it is not that simple. No statement is made in a vacuum. The clash between the parliament and the judiciary is very real and any and all statements made by the leaders of either side are going to be mined for the significance therein. One cannot help but interpret the adversarial tone in the statement.
The fact of the matter is that if the parliament cannot draft any law on account of it clashing with the constitution, it can go ahead and amend the latter. Determining whether an act of parliament actually clashes with the constitution in the first place is subject to the interpretation of the Supreme Court.
The interpretative powers of the courts are large. Yes, it would do the parliament a whole lot of good to realise that the sharper, tighter and clearer the legislation, the lesser that interpretative power is going to be but the court can still get away with a lot.
The idea is to take one’s work seriously but never to take oneself seriously. All institutions form the patchwork, the magical mix, that goes on to make countries smoothly functioning democracies. No institution, not the judiciary, not the armed forces nor the political government, should nurture a messiah complex; that is usually the start of a sob story. But, it is still important to realise that there is a pecking order here. One that places the parliament at the top. Some institutions may derive their bravado from the guns they wield, others from their right to decree. But it is only the parliament and political government that derives its power from the people themselves.
