ISLAMABAD - Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan on Monday said that the constitutional bar on the judicial intervention in parliamentary proceedings was not absolute, calling for keeping this door open to avoid a deadlock or standstill situations.
Speaking in the Senate after being summoned for an explanation on alleged interference of the judiciary in internal parliamentary affairs, the attorney general admitted that Article 69 of the Constitution provided that courts could not question the validity of any proceedings in Parliament on the grounds of any irregularity of procedure. “There is a lot of sanctity attached to it, but it is not absolute,” he said, adding that some circumstances warranted leaving that door open.
Awan referred to the April 4, 2022 judgment of the Supreme Court declaring unconstitutional the ruling of the then deputy speaker of the National Assembly on the no-confidence motion against the then prime minister Imran Khan. He said that the assembly was dissolved because of the controversial ruling and the members had the only option to approach the court seeking its interference. “Obviously, they had to go to the court, and the court did interfere,” he said.
In such conditions where a standstill situation arises in the House leading towards non-resolution of the matter, it becomes very important to leave the door of judicial interference open, he added. Talking about stay orders against proceedings of parliamentary committees, the attorney general said a solution could be found out, noting certain amendments in rules of procedure and conduct of business in House might be required.
Awan gave these remarks following his meeting with PPP Senator Saleem Mandviwalla who had raised the issue of judicial interference in the House last month. Mandviwalla told the House that he briefed the attorney general on how the high courts were interfering in the business of the Senate, issuing consecutive stay orders against proceedings of standing committees even before a decision had been taken.
The Parliamentary Leader of PTI in the House Syed Ali Zafar said that the Constitution did not provide any room for grant of stay against proceedings of the standing committees as they were extensions of Parliament. He warned that there should not be an institutional clash and the matter should be resolved. Senator Zafar underlined that the attorney general had wrongly interpreted the Constitution. He said the courts could intervene, where something was not being done in accordance with clear constitutional provisions. He, however, said the internal proceedings of the House and the committees could not be called into question. “We are sovereign and not subordinate to the courts,” he remarked.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar fully endorsed the remarks by the PTI senator and said that the principle of trichotomy of power must be followed by all. He said it was Parliament that had to decide how the country was to be run. PPP Senator Zamir Hussain Ghumro and JUI-F Senator Kamran Murtaza also termed judicial interference as violation of Article 69. Winding up the debate on the floods that have severely affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary told the House that the federal government was showing its complete responsibility in dealing with disaster.
“No politics is being played in this issue,” he said in response to some criticism by PTI senators including Falak Naz Chitrali and Rubina Naz, alleging that the federal government and the National Disaster Management Authority NDMA) have given their slow response in relief efforts after the catastrophic floods affected KP the most.
While referring to a statement of Chief Minister KP Ali Amin Gandapur that they have sufficient resources to carry out relief operations, the minister said that it was the collective responsibility of everyone including the federation and the provinces and everyone has responded effectively in this disaster.
Sharing the details of the losses from June 26 to August 17, Chaudhary said that the deluge claimed 675 lives, injured 929 people, damaged 2,462 houses, and affected 1,000 livestock. He urged the provinces to generate maximum resources for people to protect them from these natural disasters. “Illegal constructions in riverbeds and natural water channels have caused devastation,” he said.
The minister said that the federal government was utilising all resources to provide blankets, generators and other aid to the people in flood-affected areas, especially in the worst-hit nine districts of KP. Army troops and paramilitary forces that come under the administrative control of the federal government are also engaged in relief operations, he added.
He said that criticism by the senators on the NDMA was unnecessary as some areas did not come under the domain of the authority. He added that the primary duty of the authority was to provide prior information and data about extreme weather to the provinces and the provincial disaster management authorities (PDMAs). “The NDMA has issued 28 advisories and seven alerts (during this monsoon season),” he said, adding that it was providing necessary support to PDMAs.