After the military takeover of the civilian government, the pro-democracy organizations and PML(N)'s lawyers challenged the legality of the military takeover, asking the supreme court to review its rulings. After the lengthy court battle between Sharif's and Musharraf's lawyers, the Supreme Court was in a clear view of the military take over as "unconstitutional" but favoured the legality on necessity grounds that was viewed as very limited, on 12 May 2000.