Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the votes cast by lawmakers in parliament against their party directions can be counted, in a major relief to the government seeking support for a constitutional amendment to tweak laws related to the judiciary. The apex court’s previous ruling had stated that the votes of parliamentarians who deviated from their party’s directives were to be disregarded and not counted. The Supreme Court Bar Association had filed a review petition against the apex court’s verdict related to the defection clause under Article 63-A of the Constitution.

Hearing the plea, a five-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa announced the unanimous verdict and approved the review petition with the top judge saying the detailed verdict would be issued later.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Isa and justices Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel issued the verdict after hearing the petition that the bench had started on Monday.

The court in its May 17, 2022 verdict had said that the votes of the lawmakers would not be counted but after granting of review petition, the vote would be counted but the person going against the party line would lose his seat. 

The 2022 verdict was given in response to the presidential case filed by then-President Arif Alvi. It was then a 3-2 split decision, with then-chief justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar being the majority verdict authors. The development comes as the government is struggling to get support for its planned constitutional amendment to tweak laws related to the top judiciary.

It is short of a two-thirds majority but cannot get support from opposition lawmakers as their vote would not have been counted.

But now it can get the support of the dissidents in any opposition party as their vote would be counted.