ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will announce its decision on a presidential reference seeking its interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution, which is related to the disqualification of lawmakers over defection, at 5:30 pm.
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijaz ul-Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, completed proceedings of the case earlier today.
The first hearing of the case took place on March 21 by a two-member bench, after which Justice Bandial constituted a larger bench to hear the matter.
Justice Bandial’s decision came after news emerged that at least a dozen members of the then ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who were staying at Islamabad’s Sindh House, came out in open defiance of their party on the issue of the no-confidence motion submitted by the joint opposition against then-prime minister Imran Khan.
The PTI government had approached the Supreme Court in a bid to stop its dissenting lawmakers from voting against Khan and had sought a lifetime disqualification for those who attempted to deviate from the party’s direction.
Article 63-A, the law on floor-crossing, provides that MPs who defect could lose their seats if they then vote against their party, but the government aims to find out whether that also applies before they cast their votes.
Article 63-A reads that an MP can be disqualified on grounds of defection if they “vote or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the parliamentary party to which he belongs, in relation to the election of the prime minister or chief minister; or a vote of confidence or a vote of no-confidence; or a money bill (budget) or a Constitution (amendment) bill”.
The law, however, says the party head — Khan, in this case — has to declare in writing the MP concerned has defected but before making the declaration, they will “provide such member with an opportunity to show cause as to why such declaration may not be made against him”.
The office of Asad Umar, who is also the party’s secretary-general, had served the notices on some 14 legislators on March 19, directing them to explain their position in a week.
Khan has become the first prime minister of Pakistan to lose a no-trust vote in the National Assembly.
Despite attempts to block the no-confidence motion here in the National Assembly, the voting took place in April in which as many as 174 members voted in favour of the motion in the 342-member House.
