The NA speaker asks Supreme Court justices to stay out of the “political thicket”

In a letter addressed to the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Speaker of the National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf Wednesday wrote that the country’s top court must “avoitting involved in political thicket”, as far as possible.

The speaker wrote the letter to the country’s top judge regarding the court’s encroachment upon the National Assembly’s power to approve expenditures from the Federal Consolidated Fund.

The development comes as the government and the Supreme Court remain at loggerheads over the elections to the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies.

The apex court — which will resume hearing on elections tomorrow (Thursday) — had before Eid ul Fitr asked parties to sit down at the negotiating table to decide a day for the elections, but that hasn’t happened yet.

In a meeting of the ruling allies earlier today, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that a parliamentary committee would discuss the terms of talks between the ruling alliance and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regarding holding elections across the country on the same day.

But the lawmakers of the ruling alliance, in their fiery speeches today, rejected to hold talks with the opposition under duress and expressed confidence in the leadership of PM Shehbaz.

“It is best to leave resolution of political matters by parliament and the political parties,” the speaker of the lower house wrote.

In his letter, Speaker Ashraf urged the apex court’s top judge and other judges as well to individually and collectively exercise restraint and respect the legislative domain of the Parliament.

“We must work together to uphold the Constitution, protect the democratic values and work within our respective constitutional domains to ensure that confrontation between the organs of the state is avoided and the constitutional order is maintained,” he stated.

He further wrote about conveying “profound concern and unease of the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan regarding some recent decisions of the Supreme Court and comments made by some Hon’ble Judges, as reported in media.”

He added that those decisions amount to encroachment upon two core constitutional functions of the National Assembly — law-making and power of the purse.

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The speaker also highlighted that the Article 73 of the Consitution vests powers related to the Money Bill exclusively in the National Assembly, while Articles 79 to 85 confer power and authority to approve expenditure from the Federal Consolidated Fund on the elected members of the National Assembly.

“Keeping in view these unambiguous constitutional provisions and division of powers and functions, I write to convey the profound concern and deep unease of the National Assembly with the orders passed by a 3-member Bench of the Supreme Court, on 14-04-2023 and 19-04-2023, directing the State Bank of Pakistan and Finance Division, Government of Pakistan to allocate/release Rs. 21 billion two the Election Commission of Pakistan,” he wrote.