Pakistan SC to announce verdict on deputy speaker's ruling, NA dissolution shortly
The verdict will be announced at 7:30pm (Bangladesh time 8:30pm) in the evening
The Supreme Court of Pakistan will announce its verdict today 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 verdict was to be announced at 7:30pm but it has since been delayed. In anticipation of the verdict, security was beefed up at the SC premises with television footage showing riot police deployed outside the apex court., reports DAWN.
A five-member bench headed by CJP Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Mandokhel heard the case.
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Former cricket star Khan lost his parliamentary majority last week and was on the verge of being forced from office by a no-confidence vote tabled by the opposition on Sunday.
But the deputy speaker of parliament, a member of Khan's party, threw out the motion, ruling it was part of a foreign conspiracy and unconstitutional. Khan then dissolved parliament.
CJP Bandial today said that it was clear that the 3 April 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.
The stand-off has thrown the country of 220 million people, ruled by the military for extended periods since independence in 1947, into a full-blown constitutional crisis.
