In Pakistan, the government is taking on a divided judiciary Premium

What started off as a political crisis between the ruling coalition and the opposition led by Imran Khan is turning out to be a constitutional crisis in Pakistan.

What started off as a political crisis between the ruling coalition and the opposition led by Imran Khan is turning out to be a constitutional crisis in Pakistan, with the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seemed determined to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court Chief Justice even as cracks are widening in the judiciary.

For the past year, the South Asian country, reeling under mounting economic woes, has been on the brink with Mr. Khan, who was forced out of power by a vote of no-confidence in Parliament in April 2022, demanding early national elections. It escalated in January when Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party dissolved two provincial assemblies – Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The Constitution says: “A general election to the Assembly shall be held within a period of 90 days after the dissolution.”

Comment | Tampering with the Constitution in Pakistan

The PTI had counted on the dissolution leading to either elections in the two provinces or forcing the coalition government of Mr. Sharif at the Centre to agree to early general elections across the country. But the Centre was not in a hurry to hold provincial elections. The matter reached the Supreme Court after the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Umar Ata Bandial, took a  suo moto notice over the delay in polls. After a lot of back and forth (a nine-member Bench, which initially took up the case was later reconstituted to a five-member Bench), a 3-2 split decision held that elections should be held within 90 days in both provinces.

The government did not accept this decision. Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told  The Hindu that the Punjab polls decision was dismissed by 4-3 judges “after two judges recused from the nine-member Bench, but it is unfortunate that the Chief Justice made this case controversial”. Mr. Tarar said the government believes things have not been dealt with in a proper manner. “The matter has actually been manipulated.”

After the 3-2 split decision, three judges of the original nine-member Bench (Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Athar Minallah) made some scathing remarks in their detailed orders.

In March, Justices Ali Shah and Mandokhail said they were in agreement with the decisions of Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Athar Minallah when they questioned the intent of the  suo moto and urged the constitution of a full Bench. In essence, the order said the Punjab elections’  suo moto was dismissed 4-3. The detailed ruling added: “We find it essential to underline that in order to strengthen our institution and to ensure public trust and public confidence in our Court, it is high time that we revisit the power of ‘one-man show’ enjoyed by the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.”