To avoid future coups

Supreme Court of Pakistan has always relied upon Doctrine of Necessity to validate the martial laws. For this purpose, previous judgments of the SC are also relied upon.

Apart from having an independent media and independent judiciary, another simple safeguard against martial law can be provided by the Parliament itself. By a simple majority, the Parliament can do away with all previous judgments of the Supreme Court validating the martial law. That way, bad precedents will no longer be available to the dictators and their advocates.

There are various judgments of the Supreme Court whereby it has been held that Parliament can take away the effect of the Supreme Court's judgment by simple majority. Another way of doing it is that the federal government should immediately designate the authorized person to activate section III of High Treason Act, 1973 (framed under the mandate of Article 6 of the constitution), on whose complaint the courts can then take cognizance of the offence, as observed in Muhammad Nawaz Sharif's case. -TARIQ AZIZ, via e-mail, August 20.