Islamabad (Web Desk): The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday reserved its verdict on the suo motu notice taken by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial on the legality of the current situation in the country following the dismissal of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan by National Assembly (NA) Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri and the subsequent dissolution of the NA by President Arif Alvi on the prime minister's advice.
The verdict will be announced at 7:30pm today.
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, and including Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail is hearing the case.
During today's hearing, counsel of NA Speaker and the Deputy Speaker Naeem Bukhari and Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan presented their arguments.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were also provided opportunity to speak during the hearing.
On Sunday, the SC had taken suo motu notice regarding current political situation which emerged after President Dr Arif Alvi’s decision to dissolve National Assembly.
On April 3, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri dismissed the no-trust move against Prime Minister Imran Khan, terming it a contradiction of Article 5 of the Constitution.
Later, on the advice of Prime Minister Imran Khan, President Alvi dissolve assemblies.
In an address to the nation, soon after NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri dismissed no-trust move against the premier, PM Imran said that he had advised President Alvi to dissolve assemblies.
A joint petition, filed by the PPP, PML-N and JUI-F through Farooq H. Naek, Azam Nazir Tarar and Kamran Murtaza, has also requested the apex court to declare the ruling of the deputy speaker, as well as the advice of the prime minister to the president to dissolve the National Assembly and the subsequent dissolution of the assembly as illegal and unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court on the constitutional crisis.
The constitutional petition filed by SCBA states that a voting of no-confidence motion was a must, and the speaker cannot cancel the voting by a ruling.
It was further noted that the deputy speaker’s ruling contradicts Article 95(2). It further said that according to Article 58(1) the premier cannot even “advise dissolution of the assembly,” once the no-confidence motion is filed against him/her.