‘Contempt of parliament’: Bilawal says SC decision on Punjab polls unacceptable

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s latest judgments amounted to “contempt of parliament,” and demanded the matter be referred to the privileges committee, Aaj News reported.

Speaking on the floor of the house during the ongoing National Assembly session, Bilawal said he was shocked at the top court’s latest verdict, in which it directed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to issue funds for polls in Punjab and KP and later take approval from parliament.

“The parliament is being insulted because of a few people’s stubbornness. If the judiciary has any misunderstanding regarding the Constitution, the PPP and the parliamentary committee are present to help it understand.”

He questioned how the SC could order that the parliament be ignored.

Bilawal said the parliament respects judges despite their ‘thoughts’, but insisted that the top court did not have the authority to amend the Constitution.

“How can the court order that the parliament’s decision be ignored and the verdict of a minority bench be accepted? We are not ready to accept the court’s decision if it says the parliament should be ignored.”

The Supreme Court’s verdict had insulted the parliament and the matter should be raised in the Privileges Committee, the foreign minister said. “We have tolerated a lot. How long will we keep doing it?” he thundered.

Earlier, Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf told the National Assembly that he would write a letter to the apex court expressing the sentiments of the parliamentarians towards the court decisions in the election delay case.

“The house is in a continuous state of anxiety,” Ashraf said, “speeches were made today regarding the judgements passed by the Supreme Court.” He added that he wanted to write a letter that would sum up the reservations expressed by members in the session.

“I want to ask the opinion of the house before writing the letter,” the speaker said, to which the members of the present in the assembly responded by thumping their desks.

Addressing the session, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said issuing funds for elections in the country was a complex procedural matter and could not simply be done on the Supreme Court’s orders.

In a fiery speech that ranged from the state of the economy before the 2018 elections and how the Supreme Court’s decisions were cutting into parliament’s domain, Dar said the need of the time was to fix the economy and elections could wait.

“Nothing will happen if elections are delayed a few months and held at once in October,” Dar said.

’What we are doing is not unconstitutional, what we are being asked to do (by the court) is unconstitutional,“ he said, holding a copy of the constitution in his hand. He then asked the house to guide the cabinet and the prime minister on how to proceed.

The finance minister said that even though the State Bank had allocated the money, the actual power to disburse the money belonged to the finance division.

“All the trouble started when the Supreme Court re-wrote the Constitution by redefining Article 63-A, after which the Punjab government was handed over to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

“Had this not been done, the assemblies would not have been dissolved,” Dar said, criticising the top court for “interfering” in politicians’ domain.

Earlier, PTI’s nine lawmakers from Karachi were stopped from entering the parliament building after they decided to attend the NA session.

On Tuesday, Aftab Siddiqui, President PTI Karachi chapter, had written a letter to Speaker of the National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, intimating to him that the nine PTI MNAs from Karachi will attend the lower house session scheduled on April 26, after the Sindh High Court (SHC) in March suspended an ECP notification of accepting the resignations of nine MNAs of the party.

“We have the right to attend the assembly’s session, after suspension of the Speaker’s order,” the letter read. “The Speaker’s notification is not required after the Sindh High Court’s ruling,” said the letter. “We will protest and initiate legal proceedings if prevented from attending the National Assembly session.”