Umar Ata Bandial, CJ (with Ijaz ul Ahsan & Munib Akhtar, JJ for majority judgment):

[1] For detailed reasons to be recorded later and subject to what is set out therein by way of amplification or otherwise, by majority of three to two (Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail dissenting) these matters are disposed of together in the following terms:

1. The first question referred by the President relates to the proper approach to be taken to the interpretation and application of art 63A of the Constitution. In our view, this provision cannot be read and applied in isolation and in a manner as though it is aloof from, or indifferent to, whatever else is provided in the Constitution. Nor can art 63A be understood and applied from the vantage point of the member who has earned opprobrium and faces legal censure as a defector by reason of his having acted or voted (or abstained from voting) in a manner contrary to what is required of him under cl (1) thereof. Rather, in its true perspective this Article is an expression in the Constitution itself of certain aspects of the fundamental rights that inhere in political parties under cl (2) of art 17. The tw