COAS appointment Will SC interfere to nip the potential crisis in bud.

ISLAMABAD -- As the controversy over the question of the appointment of the new army chief persists and conjectures are on the rise, the arbitrary role of the Supreme Court has once again gained weightage.

While some legal experts are of the view that the top court must remain aloof from the all-important military's change of guard takes place, others reckon there is a chance of intervention from the court if a procedural lapse in the process occurs.

Although reports have indicated that the civil and military leaderships are liaising on the matter for a smoother process, dark clouds are hovering over the twin cities.

The court of the last, which has arbitrated contestations between political elites and stakeholders in order to nip serious constitutional crises in the bud, has been compelled to play a tutelary role of its own to restrain extra-constitutional steps in the rest past.

Senior lawyers believe that the Supreme Court must in principle refrain from interfering in the matter but suggest that the superior courts' judges should remain vigilant as they have been on previous occasions when a timely restraining order became the need of the hour.

In August 2014, an SC bench led by ex-chief justice of Pakistan Nasir ul Mulk had to restrain all state functionaries from taking any extra-constitutional steps as both PTI and PAT were holding protests and sit-ins in the federal capital.

The court in its three-page order also asked the functionaries to act only in accordance with the constitution.

'All state authorities and functionaries are directed to act only in the accordance with the constitution and the law, who shall be guided by the principles of the constitution and Law enunciated in the case of Sindh High Bar Association 31, 2009 verdict and they are restrained from acting in any manner unwarranted by the constitution and law," said the court order, passed on August 15, 2014

Earlier, the same order was passed by a seven-member bench on November 3, 2007, against the promulgation of emergency and PCO.

On August 13, 2014, the then chief justice of Pakistan constituted a four-member bench to hear a plea of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), seeking a declaration that any extra-constitutional steps should be restrained in light of the present situation of the country.

The petition, filed by then SCBA president Kamran Murtaza, also sought a declaration that the fundamental rights of the citizens of the country should not be violated by...