Daily Times

Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Wednesday urged the National Assembly speaker to set up a Committee of the Whole to “investigate the decisions of higher courts since Justice Munir to give legal cover to constitutional violations”.

Speaking in the National Assembly, the minister said there was unfortunately “a clash of opinion between two constitutional institutions”.

Quoting his own tweet, he said, “The inquest in unethical judicial interventions to destabilise the fountain of democracy and ensure its destruction must start from the Dosso’s Case where the court invented the Doctrine of Necessity to justify all wrongs. It is time Parliament inquires into and hold accountable ( even posthumously ) those Judges who aided and abetted constitutional violations.”

“A resolution should be drafted in that regard and the Committee of the Whole should be set up.” He said they were not against any institution and “every institution should also not trespass on the domains of others. The minister said some 51,000 cases were being pending before the Supreme Court and over 400,000 cases in high courts. The judiciary should decide the pending cases as many people were waiting for justice, he added.

Earlier, speaking in the House, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the speaker could not provide the proceedings of the House to the Supreme Court without seeking the consent of members.

“It is a matter of the House’s sovereignty” and it should be placed before the House for a thorough debate,” he added.He said the Constitution was drafted by the Parliament under which the judiciary functioned.