March 18, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1429

LAHORE, March 17: The new National Assembly has, impliedly, rejected as unconstitutional all steps taken on or after Nov 3 by President Musharraf in his capacity as army chief by declaring that they don’t recognize the “interpolations” as part of the 1973 Constitution under which they are taking oath, says prominent constitutional expert Abid Hasan Minto.

He said this clearly meant that the authority that had taken the said steps was liable to be tried under the relevant article of the Constitution.

However, he said while talking to Dawn on Monday, it was for the political parties represented on the parliament to decide what action should be taken against the man who changed the course of the country’s history for his vested interest.

Mr Minto said the legislators’ pre-oath clarification also meant that the validation given by the Supreme Court to the said unconstitutional steps carried no weight.

He said the former army chief had got his steps endorsed from the Supreme Court only to save his skin. “He created a court to get a favourable verdict. This was mala fide. He used force and also violated the Constitution”.

But, Mr Minto said, the parties mandated by the people to rule the country were competent to take a decision on the subject.

In his opinion either the president should now bow to the will of the people and reconcile with the new ground realities or quit without any delay. In the parliamentary system, he said, the president was not empowered to interfere in the matters of the executive.

As for the role of courts, Mr Minto said, they should also not go against the will of the people.

Asked how a dispute between the parliament and the court on the legality and constitutionality of any issue could be settled, the former Supreme Court Bar president said the parliament was the ultimate authority and its verdict would prevail.

He said the infamous ”Doctrine of Necessity” had been rejected by the electorate as the imposition of emergency rule and sacking of the judges was an important subject of the election campaign of all parties that had taken part in the polls as well as the ones that were trying to convince the people to boycott the process.

He urged the judges not to go against the people’s verdict or they would be committing a bigger blunder than the one they had committed by taking oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.