Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team lost the Test match, while the constitution of Pakistan emerged the winner, as the Supreme Court ruled that the decision to dissolve the National Assembly as “unconstitutional’’.
Khan will now have to face the no-trust vote on Saturday at 10:30am.
It was a unanimous decision by all the five judges. Khan had ducked the no-trust vote on Sunday—when the numbers were clearly against him—with the deputy speaker Qasim Suri dissolving the house citing a “foreign-hand’’ in the no-confidence motion. This googly had left the country in a constitutional crisis.President Ari Alvi dissolved the National Assembly on the advice of Prime Minister Khan who had effectively lost the majority.
This is not the first time the Supreme Court of Pakistan has had to deliberate the issue of the constitution, but perhaps, it has been the clearest in holding up the values of democracy. For Pakistan, where no Prime Minister has ever completed the five-year term and few have made it past the four-year mark, the judgement is a victory for democracy.
“Remember, Khan justified his decision to block the non confidence vote & dissolve Parliament on a conspiracy theory utterly lacking in evidence. That’s why the Supreme Court decision today to reserve those moves is such a big win for Pakistan’s constitution and democracy,’’ tweeted Michael Kugelman, deputy director at the Asia Programme at the Wilson Centre.
It had been a tense—read polarised—few days in Pakistan as the Supreme Court deliberated the matter.
During Khan’s tenure, the relations between the opposition and the government had been adversarial. Khan won the elections on an anti-corruption plank and in his zeal to weed out the corruption, he has put almost every opposition leader in jail. And with the opposition labelled traitors during this episode, accusations and insults flew fast and furiously.
While the verdict is a win for the constitution, it is also a victory for the opposition, which had chosen to put forth a united front for the verdict. All eyes will now be on the National Assembly and the numbers on Saturday. However, it won’t be an easy road ahead even if Khan loses the vote. The new government will take over at a time when economic crisis looms large and inflation is at a record high.
