Expressing reservations on the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Sunday that the court’s decisions “should not be political but they should be given in line with the Constitution and the law”.
“Judiciary is only responsible for the interpretation of law, not legislation,” the defence minister told Geo News while commenting on the top court’s verdict on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) reserved seats case.
Asif slammed the apex court’s July 12 verdict, once again, which declared the embattled former ruling party eligible for reserved seats for women and minorities in the assemblies.
In a major legal victory for the Imran Khan-founded party and a setback for the rulers, the apex court had ruled that PTI was and is a political party that won general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the February 8 elections, thus, is entitled to reserved seats.
The court, by a majority of 8-5, set aside the Peshawar High Court’s judgement of March 25 and declared the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order of March 1 to be ultra vires the Constitution, without lawful authority and of no legal effect.
The politico said that the judges shouldn’t blend “political remarks” while hearing different cases in their courts and “we cannot even count the number of the judiciary’s political verdicts”.
Pointing towards the reserved seats case, he claimed that the “verdict can result in a constitutional crisis”. Not only politicians, judiciary, media and bureaucracy also bore responsibility to play their roles for the country’s stability, Asif emphasised.
Asif urged the judiciary to “restore its image” as “its conflicting decisions are being discussed everywhere now”.
He also demanded that contempt of court under Article 209 should also be imposed on giving wrong verdicts.
‘Afghans are ungrateful’
When questioned about an attack on the Pakistani consulate in Germany’s Frankfurt by a group of Afghan nationals, Asif condemned the incident and said: “Afghans are ungrateful.”
“Pakistan is currently hosting nearly 5 million Afghan nationals. We fought a war for them against the Soviet Union. Should we continue to host them after the recent incident in Germany?”
He censured that Pakistan should review its decision to host Afghan nationals after an increasing trend of “abuses, statements against Pakistan’s integrity and protests” from the neighbouring country.
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The defence czar made the statement after a group of Afghan citizens vandalised and attacked the consulate in Frankfurt a day ago which was strongly condemned by the Pakistani government.
The video of the incident went viral on the internet in which the Afghan nationals could be seen storming the Pakistani consulate, pelting stones at the building and removing the country’s flag. Some reports suggested that they also tried burning the Pakistani flag.
The Foreign Office (FO), in a statement today, also condemned the failure of the German authorities to protect the sanctity and security of the premises of its consular mission.
Pakistan also sought the German authorities to take immediate measures to arrest and prosecute those involved in yesterday’s incident and hold to account those responsible for the lapses in security.
The federal government has also announced earlier in the day to take strict actions if any Pakistani national was found involved in the incident which may face blockage of ID card and passport.
