It should not be the job of honourable courts to ascertain honesty and veracity of elected representatives of the Pakistani people. The Supreme Court erred when it disqualified the former Prime Minister of Pakistan with reference to constitutional provisions introduced by a military dictator to undermine the democratic process. The same mistake has been repeated in making Articles 62 and 62 grounds for disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf secretary general Jahangir Khan Tareen. That legislators themselves are making the courts adjudicate their colleagues’ honesty and veracity only highlights the damage that has been done to our democratic institutions over the years. In plain and simple terms, in their existing form, Articles 62 and 63 do not belong to a parliamentary democracy Pakistan aspires to be. There will be no respect and security of the will of the Pakistani people so long as these articles remain as they are. The sooner our parliamentary parties come to an agreement to do away with these articles, the better it will be for the future of democracy in this country. None of the foregoing is to suggest that wrongdoing and malpractices are to be tolerated. To the contrary, the reason why Articles 62 and 63 need to go is precisely so that we can then hold our parliamentarians to account for their financial dealings, as private citizens and public representatives, based on objectively verifiable legal criteria. That will guarantee more robust accountability mechanisms. The urgent need for such rigour is clearly visible based on just a cursory reading of Friday’s judgement. It is abundantly clear from the text of the judgement that Mr Tareen has not been entirely upright in his financial dealings. For instance, the Supreme Court has expressed its dismay over the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) for settling the matter of insider trading, instead of acting on clear violations of various laws on corporate practices. Those are the kind of violations that we must not be willing to accept for they cast doubts on the entire edifice of the country’s financial system. The message ordinary citizens get from such callous disregard for its own laws by the regulators – the SECP in this case – is that those with power and influence can find many ways to work around laws, and avoid repercussions for their suspicious financial practices. Such loopholes in corporate governance frameworks need to be fixed. The Supreme Court has referred the matter of foreign funding allegations on the PTI to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). We hope that the ECP probes the allegations in a timely manner and proceed in accordance with the relevant law. Finally, there are countless more important and pressing matters of public interest that await remedial action by the honourable SC under its original jurisdiction. It is best that the court restricts the exercise of its powers under the Article 184 (3) to those issues. * Published in Daily Times, December 16th 2017.