In upholding the much-prized notion of parliamentary sovereignty, lawmakers in Pakistan have forgotten another just as crucial cornerstone: judicial independence. So when former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi urges for a whole house committee to summon none other than the Chief Justice of Pakistan for a tight line of questioning, he conveniently sidelines how courts and their gamekeepers are creatures of the constitution and, therefore, derive all their power and jurisdiction from the sacrosanctum values. The preservation of trichotomy of powers, in part, emanated from the like of Article 68, cannot be tossed out the window just because the National Assembly is not comfortable with the “unnecessary intrusion.” A similar demand put forward in Sri Lanka a decade ago drew a strong uproar from the legal eagles who questioned the government attacking the very fundamentals of democratic principles. That supremacy of the people and their mandate rested with the parliament alone made a caricature out of power expressed through the remaining two branches of the state: the executive and the judiciary. The clash may have been brought upon by disagreements over decisions to hold polls in the two provinces, but the genesis can be traced all the way back to last April’s vote of no-confidence. But between the government rejecting verdicts of the higher judiciary and CJ Bandial questioning the constitutionality of a bill before it has even become law, the constitution and its original benefactor–230 million Pakistanis–find themselves in a sticky predicament. If the judiciary is not yet ready to be sidelined into some dusty corner of the room, the coalition government also does not wish to beat a hasty retreat. What would become of the fast-disappearing window to pursue damage control, one may wonder? It can only be hoped that all institutions would have a good look in the mirror before indulging in the futile exercise of straying from their constitutionally-ordained roles. *