Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) quest to get the Prime Minister disqualified through the courts seemed to have come to an abrupt and premature end – at the hands of the registrar’s office of the Supreme Court - but it seems there is still life in that story.
Earlier, the Supreme Court’s Registrar’s Office had returned the respective petitions by PTI and Jamaat-e-Islaami (JI) after declaring both “frivolous’. Both political parties had challenged the objections. In its appeal, the PTI stated that declaring its plea ‘frivolous’ was “insulting, degrading and defamatory”, and clearly reflected lack of experience, along with complete absence of application of mind.’’
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, reviewing the appeal, agreed with the viewpoint of the political parties and declared the verdict of the registrar’s office “null and void”. Coming from the Chief Justice, the decision carries some weight, but PTI must hold off from celebrating – only its stance on the procedural matters of the case has been vindicated, not the substantive issue itself.
Furthermore, the vindication isn’t complete vindication either; the court has yet to decide on the ‘frivolity’ of the petition, instead of the registrar’s office, a three judge bench will now take up the summary hearing. It may come to the same conclusion yet.
The chances are that it might. The petitions by JI and PTI have the same deficiencies that were highlighted by the previous decision. No government law enforcement agency or accountability body has completed the investigation against the Prime Minister and his family – most haven’t even started yet. Hence there are no settled facts on which the Supreme Court can arbitrate on.
Other problems persist too; the appellants have not exhausted other avenues of obtaining justice, a requirement that the Supreme Court – being the highest appellate court – insists upon before taking up petitions.
Perhaps the most important factor that might sink the hopes of the petitioners is this: the present Chief Justice does not want to get dragged into what is essentially a political scandal. The Chief Justice refused to take up the government’s request to form a commission on the matter – something he had the power to do – and taking that trend into consideration, there is little chance that it will take up this one.
The Supreme Court may not be pitching its weight behind the disqualifying band – but it does seem that it might be humoring them.