SC suspends membership of 28 lawmakers

The Supreme Court’s decision to suspend 28 members of the Senate, national and provincial assemblies on Monday put the government in an awkward and embarrassing position as among the suspended members were two federal ministers – one of who, Senator Dr Asim Hussain, was accompanying the prime minister on an official visit to Qatar – while the other, Senator Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, was engaged in talks with a high-level Iranian delegation in Islamabad. These 28 members of the parliament and provincial assemblies were elected when the Election Commission was incomplete after the passage of the 18th Amendment. The Supreme Court decision is being seen an unnecessary haste, as the government has
already summoned the National Assembly and the Senate sessions to table the 20th Amendment Bill for giving a legal cover to the election of these 28 legislators. The move has deprived the already numbers’-weak Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government the support of its four National Assembly and two Senate members. Senator Syed Sajid Hussain Zaidi, who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), can also not vote in favour of the 20th Amendment. Besides Dr Hafeez Shaikh and Dr Asim Hussain, PPP MNAs who were suspended are Chaudhry Asghar Ali Jutt, Jamshed Ahmed Dasti, Chaudhry Tasadduq Masud Khan and Khadija Aamir Yar Malik.
A PML-Quaid member, Owais Ahmed Khan Leghari, who had developed differences with his party but was bound by the constitution not to take a position other than that of his party, has also been suspended. The PML-Q is also an ally of the government’s and Owais’ suspension has deprived the government of yet another vote. The Supreme Court decision came after the government failed to give legal cover to these 28 legislators despite the apex court’s repeated directions. The court had given the government a deadline to amend the constitution by February 6. The 18th Amendment was passed in April 2010 and consequently an independent election commission was formed in June 2011. These 28 legislators were elected during the intervening period between April 2010 and June 2011. And, the government did not amend the constitution since June 2011, as a result of which the SC finally suspended the memberships of these 28 legislators. The SC apparently exercised restraint as it did not declare the election of these legislators null and void, giving the government a chance to amend the constitution. However, their memberships would remain suspended until the passage of the 20th constitutional amendment.
The SC, however, rejected an appeal to impede forthcoming by-elections, saying the court never passed an order to disallow the ECP from conducting by-polls but to ensure that electoral lists were transparent to meet the constitutional requirement. A four-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany issued the order while hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan, who had asked the apex court to declare as invalid the by-polls that were held with electoral rolls containing bogus votes. “The 28 elected representatives shall remain suspended with all legal consequences and will be revived after the passage of 20th Amendment in the Constitution,” the chief justice said in his order. Those whose memberships have been suspended also include Minister for Narcotics Control Khuda Bux Rajar, Muhammad Akhtar Khan Kanju (independent), Sardar Shafqat Hayat Khan (PML-N) and Sardar Mumtaz Khan (PML-N). Besides them, memberships of 11 members of the provincial assemblies of Balochistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh and five members elected on reserved seats in various assemblies have been suspended.
The MPAs include Syed Basit Ahmed Sultan, Ajmal Asif, Ahmed Mujtaba Gilani, Sardar Meer Badshah Qaisrani, Malik Saiful Malook Khokhar, Ijaz Ahmed, Malik Ghulam Raza, Saifuddin Khalid, Ghulam Qadir Bettani, Rashad Khan, Sarwar Musakhel, Humaira Awais Shahid, Rana Rizvi, Arif Masih, Rasheed Khan Bhai and Chettan Mal. The chief justice observed that parliamentarians should have themselves refused the perks and privileges, adding that the court had shown much restraint in the matter, because ever since the 18th Amendment was passed, it had been pointing out that the EC was not constituted according to the constitutional provisions and rules, but no progress was made. While appreciating National Database and Registration Authority, the chief justice directed its counsel Afnan Kundi to finalise the electoral list within stipulated time, February 25.