The Supreme Court Bar has filed petition in the apex court seeking review of the court’s opinion in the Presidential Reference seeking interpretation of Article 63-A.
The Supreme Court Bar has pleaded to the court to review its opinion given over interpretation of the Article 63-A on May 17.
The Bar has requested to the court to review the paragraph of its opinion in the presidential reference, with regard to not counting the vote of the dissenting members and take back that opinion. ” Not counting the defecting members vote is against the spirit of the constitution,” the SC Bar petitioned. “The Supreme Court’s opinion has been equal to an intervention in the constitution,” according to the petition.
“According to the Article 63-A, defecting members can only be de-seated,” SC Bar said in its petition.
The federal government and the election commission has been made parties in the case.
The Supreme Court in its interpretation of Article 63-A, on May 17, declared that defecting members votes will not be counted in the Parliament.
It was a split decision with 3-2 majority, made by five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial. The Chief Justice said that changing loyalties in the parliament damages the integrity of democracy.
It is upto the Parliament to decide on the life-long disqualification of defecting members, the decision read.