ISLAMABAD, Oct 03 (APP): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Parliamentary Party Leader in the Senate Irfan-ul-Haque Siddiqui on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court ruling on the review petition regarding Article 63-A of the Constitution.
It was “a rectification of a major constitutional error, which provides relief not to any political party, but to the Constitution itself,” he said in an interview with a private channel, according to a press release.
Siddiqui, who is also Chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, criticised the earlier verdict of a three-member SC bench given two years ago, alleging that an extra clause was inserted into the Constitution to favour a particular political party in Punjab, with the sole objective of replacing Hamza Shehbaz with Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as the chief minister.
Highlighting the “dangers of judicial overreach”, he emphasized that executive and military dictatorships had limitations, but “judicial activism oversteps all boundaries”.
Responding to a question, he stressed the importance of support from Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman and his party’s legislators saying that negotiations were underway in that regard.
Political talks were taking place in broad daylight, he added.
Siddiqui expressed the optimism that Maulana Fazl would reach a decision soon, and a parliamentary session could be convened within a week or ten days.
Commenting on the current political environment, he accused the PTI of trying to create unrest during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.
He recalled the PTI’s protests in 2014 and the May 9 incidents, saying that the party leadership had not changed their mindset.
Agreeing with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Siddiqui said that after October 25, amending the Constitution could become more challenging.
He said during the May 3 meeting of the Judicial Commission, the Law Minister had conveyed the government’s intention to introduce a constitutional package.
Siddiqui claimed that had the government any hidden agenda, it would have kept mum on the issue, but its bid to keep things transparent had created concern among certain quarters.
In that regard, he cited the May 6 judicial ruling which had deprived the coalition government of a two-thirds majority.
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