Lawyer Writes

A Timeline of Pakistan’s Lawfare Challenges                                       UMM E RUQQIA     Pakistan has struggled a lot with lawfare challenges over the years including both national and international lawfare challenges. Lawfare is not a very old term, it was introduced in 2001 but the concept it holds is as earlier as the formation of the state. We get to see a series of events in the last ten decades of Pakistan that have played as the lawfare challenges for Pakistan. These events have shaken the roots of Pakistan’s national security as a whole and at times have played a significant role in setting trends for the rest of the world. 1999 The Islamic Republic of Pakistan submitted an application on September 21st, 1999, to start legal action against the Republic of India over the destruction of a Pakistani aircraft on August 10, 1999. The court held that i...

DOES AFGHANISTAN STILL MATTER IN PAK-US RELATIONS?                                                                                                                        UMM E RUQQIA Afghanistan has always factored significantly in the Pak - U.S. relationship. Pak - U.S. ties in the last two decades were mainly driven by USA’s geopolitical objectives in Afghanistan. Seemingly, the United States wants to strengthen relations with the PML-N-led coalition government while encouraging them to influence the Taliban to comply with the international community's demands. Is Taliban-controlled Afghanistan a significant factor in Pak-US relati...

  DISQUALIFICATION CLAUSE What does Article 63A Say? UMM E RUQQIA The events that happened in 2022, the motion of no confidence and the chief minister elections, have led to a fierce debate among lawmakers about Article 63-A. Article 63-A is initially about disabling a lawmaker on the grounds of defection. The defection would be done if, he votes against the directions of party policy or he abstains from voting. The question here arises why there was a want for an anti-defection clause in the constitution. What was the purpose of this amendment? Did floor-crossing and defection stop after this amendment? Are the directions to vote issued by the parliamentary party or the party chief of the political party to which he belongs? In its initial version, the 1973 constitution lacked an anti-defection clause. By inserting Article 63-A, the 14th amendment, by the second Nawaz Sharif era in 1997, added anti-defection measures to the constitution. "To avert instability in connection to the...