SC's verdict over Army Chief's extension not legally valid: Fawad Chaudhry
"Parliament is an independent body not under the apex court", Fawad expressed.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said that the decision of the Supreme Court over the extension of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa is not legally valid.
He said that there was considerable scope for disagreement from the legal point of view with Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and other bench members. Speaking exclusively in program "Dunya Kamran Khan Kay Sath", Fawad Chaudhry asserted that the SC cannot instruct the Parliament to legislate.
“Parliament is an independent body, and it is not under the apex court”, he expressed.
Fawad Chaudhry said that the question of legislature regarding the tenure of the Army Chief requires a simple majority in Parliament, and the Senate to amend the Section 255 Army Act.
The Federal Minister said that only the appointing authority has the right to reappoint. “There is a lot of legal swing in it”, he added. He further said that the SC cannot direct Parliament to mandate legislation, and judges can only be argued with legal reasoning.
He expressed the matter should be resolved as soon as possible, however, we also have a review option. He added that Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Anwar Mansoor is making preparation in this regard.
“We currently do not have any bills ready to be sent to the Assembly”, he said, adding that their legal team will make the final decision.
Respongding to a question, he expressed that the decision of the SC has to be acknowledged regardless of its nature.
Earlier, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has on Wednesday said that it would definitely be unfortunate if the opposition moves the Supreme Court (SC) for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) appointments.
The minister took to Twitter and urged all parties to reach a conclusion after showing flexibility in their positions.
“If the politicians are too immature to agree upon the appointment of a single member [chief election commissioner], how will they unanimously solve bigger issues of the country?” he said.
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It is pertinent here to mention that a 12-member Parliamentary Committee chaired by Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari had Tuesday (yesterday) met to discuss appointment of chief election commissioner and members of the ECP from Sindh and Balochistan.
However, the meeting ended without deciding on the names for the posts in the ECP.
