National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Sunday said he will not implement the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding reserved seats for the PTI until the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issues its decision in the matter.
In an interview with Geo News, he described the majority verdict of the Supreme Court as “rewriting” of the Constitution, adding Parliament had already changed the law under which reserved seats are allocated. “If we start listening to courts, there are many decisions … We won’t do it on the court’s order, we will wait for the ECP to notify it,” he said, emphasizing that the ECP was the competent authority in this matter.
To a question on whether this meant he regarded the ECP as superior to the apex court, Sadiq said he preferred to wait for the ECP to issue directions on any issues pertaining to parliamentarians.
Discussing the 26th constitutional amendment and its judicial reforms, the Speaker noted that if Parliament could make the Constitution, it could also determine who would interpret it. “If the provision exists in developed nations of the world, why can’t we have it?” he questioned, admitting this debate was unlikely to subside in the near future.
Sadiq asserted that Article 239 barred any court from questioning a constitutional amendment passed with a two-thirds majority, adding attempts to challenge it were in violation of the Constitution. During the interview, he was also questioned on the process by which consensus was achieved. Praising the role of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he hinted that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had also agreed to most of its stipulations in private but had to oppose it due to political compulsions.
To a question on Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub’s allegation of intelligence agency personnel overseeing the voting process, Sadiq said this was false and no agency officer had come to the National Assembly. He noted that when the PTI was in power, “we would sit in the opposition leader’s chambers and ‘they’ would come to deal with us on the government’s behalf.”
When asked about the “defection” of PTI-backed MNAs to vote for the 26th amendment, Sadiq said all four were “independents” as per the ECP. A clear case of defection, he maintained, was Adil Bazai, an independent MNA from Quetta who had joined the PMLN but refused to sit on treasury benches. Despite this, he said, Bazai had sought chairmanship of a standing committee and development funds as a ruling party MNA but refused to maintain party discipline. Noting that he had already one reference against Bazai, he said the PMLN had also sought a fresh reference over his refusal to vote in the constitutional amendment.