'Gilani ouster mistakenly indicates Parliament subject to will of judiciary, not people'

Islamabad, June 21 (ANI): Referring to the Supreme Court verdict which disqualified Yousuf Raza Gilani as the prime minister, an editorial in a Pakistan daily has said that the court's judgment mistakenly gives the view that parliament's supremacy is subject to the will, not of the people, but of the judiciary.

The apex court's overruling the Speaker of the National Assembly can be considered a weakening of the principle that parliament is supreme, it stated.

The editorial stated that whoever succeeds Gilani still runs the risk of being subjected to the same pressures from the judiciary as Gilani faced, and which eventually ended in his ignominious departure, not at the hands of the people or their elected representatives, which is the norm in all parliamentary democracies, but at the hands of an activist judiciary that has opened itself up in the process to grave criticism.

It may be noticed in passing that the reluctance of Gilani to file an appeal against his contempt conviction suggests a lack of confidence in the impartiality of the court. This is a serious development with implications for the future, it said.

The separation of powers enshrined in the constitution is a reflection of the best practice and constitutional structure from world experience. The framers of the U.S. constitution were clear that individuals or groups could not be relied upon to exercise restraint on the basis of good intentions, therefore checks and balances and the separation of powers was necessary, it added.

If the judiciary does not judiciously impose restraint on itself, the direction in which things may head would alarmingly resemble judicial tyranny, it concluded. (ANI)