National Assembly restored
Salary of the Chief Justice is higher than PM, President
ISLAMABAD, April 7,2022- SC declared Deputy Speaker’s ruling unconstitutional and Natioanal assembly resorted.
The Supreme Court has directed the Speaker of the National Assembly to convene a session of the Assembly on Saturday morning and hold a vote on the no-confidence motion.
The verdict on a suo motu case concerning the legality of the deputy speaker’s ruling and the subsequent dissolution of the NA by the President on the PM’s advice.
The Supreme Court has reserved verdict in the afternoon.
In anticipation of the verdict, security has been beefed up at the SC premises with television footage showing riot police deployed outside the apex court.
A five-member bench headed by CJP Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail heard the case.
ECP says elections can be held in Oct
On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said on Thursday that it would require another four months to complete the process of delimitation of constituencies, adding that elections could be held “honestly, justly and fairly” in October.
Earlier, during the hearing, CJP Bandial said that it was clear that the April 3 ruling of National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri, which dismissed the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, was erroneous.
“The real question at hand is what happens next,” he said, adding that now the PML-N counsel and the Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan would guide the court on how to proceed.
“We have to look at national interest,” he said, adding that the court would issue a verdict today.
Shehbaz urges SC to restore NA
Right before the bench reserved the verdict, opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif was given the rostrum.
At that point, CJP Bandial referred to the situation in Sri Lanka and said that the country didn’t even have money for electricity and other basic facilities.
The electoral watchdog’s statement was in reply to a letter by President Dr Arif Alvi, who had asked the ECP to propose dates for holding general elections in the country.
Dollar continues its surge against the rupee
The US dollar continued its surge against the rupee on Thursday, breaching the Rs189 barrier in the interbank trade, a trend that is largely attributed to the stalling of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan facility as well as rising imports.
According to the Forex Association of Pakistan (FAP), the greenback appreciated by Rs3 over Wednesday’s close of Rs186.13 to reach a new high of Rs189.25 in the interbank market today.
This is developing story
