Responding to the counsel for Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Sardar Latif Khosa who asked as to why judiciary is showing restraint on former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's speeches against judges, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar plainly said the court will not react to criticism, adding the people of Pakistan are the best judges who are observing everything.
Being an amicus curiae in the matter, Barrister Syed Ali Zafar argued if a person has been declared not to be honest and truthful by a court of law then there should be a time period for which he or she has been disqualified.
Zafar said that in order to arrive at a fair and just conclusion of the journey discovering the silence of the Constitution and understand the question, the Constitution has to be interpreted according to the principles of "structural modality" which is also known as the 'rule of harmony', 'rule of completeness' or 'rule of exhaustiveness.'
Zafar submitted that the entire Constitution has to be read together and it has to be seen how Constitution deals with similar situations as no particular Article of the Constitution lives in a vacuum, rather each Article relies and builds upon other provisions of the Constitution.
He said that three possible time periods can be laid down by the court in the matter in hand. One extreme is that a person is disqualified for life while the other extreme is that the person, who is not honest and truthful, is disqualified only for the term of the Parliament. Zafar maintained that both the extremes are not correct but rather under Article 62, the Parliament has given jurisdiction to the Supreme Court to determine the period of disqualification which cannot be less than five years and may extend to the time period for which the person could be sentenced. He added if there have to be a conviction in this way, no conflict arises between Article 62 and 63 and this interpretation would be according to the principles of fairness, proportionality and logic, which is the soul of law.
Substantiating his arguments, Zafar submitted that there is no conflict between Article 62 and Article 63. Representing his client, Babar Awan said that there is no time limit of term of disqualification. Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that rewriting of the Constitution is not the domain of the Supreme Court and apex court can interpret the Constitution. Later, the matter was adjourned till February 08 (today).