Humour in the Court

are the first person walking up to the rostrum with a smile on your face,” Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial remarked when Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari rose from his seat to give his submissions before the august bench in a packed courtroom number 1.

The larger bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, was hearing a suo moto case on Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling to dismiss the no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan on April 3.

It was the fifth consecutive day the apex court was hearing arguments from Attorney General of Pakistan Khalid Javid Khan and counsels representing Prime Minister, President of Pakistan, Speaker and Deputy Speaker, opposition parties and others.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial addressed Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and said that we have been watching your family serving the cause of democracy for three generations.

Gracefully making his way to the rostrum in the jam-packed courtroom number 1, a smiling Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had submitted that the only reason that they wanted to come in power right now is to introduce electoral reforms so that they people of Pakistan can elect their representatives in a free, fair and transparent fashion. Otherwise, they are not shy to go to people of Pakistan for fresh mandate, he emphatically said.

Bilawal was looking for some suitable reply to the query of the bench that so far what steps the opposition parties have taken for electoral reforms, when Senator Azam Nazir Tarar Advocate, one of the counsels representing Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) in the case, came to his rescue and submitted that a detailed bill on electoral reforms is pending with the Upper House of the Parliament for quite some time but due to government’s indifference no progress on it was made so far.

The court asked Tarar to bring the copy of the bill with him when the bench would pronounce verdict in the case.

When Bilawal Bhutto was returning to his seat, Advocate Ahsan Bhoon rose and submitted before the court that he also wanted to say something with a smile on his face.

In a lighter vein, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said that his smile has no match with that of Bilawal.  “Of course, not me Lord….because he (Bilawal) is Chairman of the party while I am just an ordinary worker,” Bhoon replied and took his seat.

Earlier, the Leader of Opposition Shahbaz Sharif reached the court and in his submission before the court pointed out the unconstitutional act of Deputy Speaker which had plunged the country into total chaos and prayed to the court to nullify his ruling.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial asked Shahbaz Sharif that when opposition parties wanted fresh elections in the country and now when things are moving in that direction, why was the opposition taking a somersault and demanding reversion of Deputy Speaker’s ruling. Shahbaz Sahrif replied that they just wanted to see the things moving in a constitutional way.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Bandial twice said that they would conclude the hearing today and will also pronounce short order in the evening.

Thursday’s proceedings saw many interesting things as at some moments Attorney General of Pakistan Khalid Javid Khan seemed to be moving against the government. At one point, he refused to defend the ruling of Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri while at another point he said that he could not present the official cable pointing at some conspiracy against the sitting government in the open court and could only give in-camera briefing to the court on it.

However, the court kept itself aloof from the controversial letter. Even the counsel representing Speaker and Deputy Speaker had submitted the minutes of the National Security Committee on the subject to the court.

After five days of marathon hearing, the court on Thursday afternoon concluded the hearing on the suo moto case and later handed down the verdict in the case the same evening. The order set aside not only the ruling of Deputy Speaker, Prime Minister’s advice and subsequent dissolution of National Assembly by President of Pakistan, but also made it binding on the Speaker National Assembly to conclude the process of no-confidence by Saturday morning and, if required, elections of the Leader of House without proroguing the current session.