The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the review petition against the judgement of the Supreme Court validating the proclamation of emergency and Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) after observing that the petitioner was failed to show error in the judgement.
A 13-member larger bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar after hearing the arguments of the counsels dismissed the petition. Chaudhry Arshad Ali, counsel for the petitioner Tika Iqbal Muhammad Khan, argued that the judgement passed by the court suffered from various errors on the face of record and deserves review.
He said that the Chief of Army Staff have no authority to issue the Proclamation of Emergency, which under the Constitution can only be imposed by the President. He pleaded that in any case, no justification was made out when the extra-constitutional steps were taken and judges were removed contrary to the reference to the Supreme Judicial Council.
Chaudhry Arshad said that the President could not have vested its power in favour of the Chief of the Army Staff, which in any case could not exercise any authority either under the Constitution or under the Army Act. He was of the view that the court has failed to notice that the extra constitutional steps taken by the Chief of Army Staff were not in the interest of the nation and were against the Constitutional hierarchy.
Attorney General for Pakistan (AG) Malik Qayyum said that the review petition is liable to be dismissed as the Supreme Court in its detailed judgement issued in the case dealt with each and every point.
He said that the court in its judgement relied on what was laid down in Zafar Ali Shah and Nusrat Bhutto case. He argued that the emergency has been validated previously in extra ordinary circumstances.
The AG said that emergency was essential to be imposed as the law and order situation in the country was worsening and the whole country had become a target of terrorism. "On October 18 the wave of extremism reached its climax and there was serious threat to our national security", the AG said.
Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, counsel for Chief of Army Staff, argued that all the points raised in the review petition were dealt by the court in its detailed judgement and what the petitioner wanted was not permissible in the law.
He said that review could only be filed if the error in judgement is floating on the surface and the judgement issued by the Supreme Court is very comprehensive. He said that the revise is misconceived and should be dismissed.
Tika Iqbal Muhammad Khan filed the review petition under Article 188 of the Constitution. Chief of Army Staff, Federation of Pakistan and Pemra were the respondents in the petition. The review petition prayed the court to set aside its judgement validating the proclamation of emergency and PCO. The review petition further prayed to declare the steps of the Chief of the Army Staff taken on November 3, 2007 as ultra vires of the Constitution.