The National Assembly on Wednesday passed the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure), Bill 2023, which aims to deprive the office of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) of powers to take suo motu notice in an individual capacity.
\nThe bill was presented by Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar.
\nPPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while addressing the law minister, termed the initiative \u201ctoo little and too late\u201d, and said that it should be called a \u201cjudges empowerment\u201d bill.
\nWhen Tarar spoke, he said, \u201cIt is being said that a constitutional amendment should be made. I want them to know there is no need for a constitutional amendment.
\n\u201cThey should go and read Article 191 of the Constitution, which empowers the Assembly to legislate. The Supreme Court also made their rules according to the Constitution and law since 1980 and it is written on the preamble as well.\u201d
\nHe said Pakistan has six bar councils and \u201call of them saluted the House and the law for tabling the bill\u201d.
\nNorth Waziristan MNA Mohsin Dawar introduced amendments which were accepted.
\nTarar also acknowledged Bilawal\u2019s \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d remarks but said he believed \u201cthere is a right time for everything\u201d and the government demonstrated restraint \u201cuntil a voice came from within the courts\u201d.
\nThe law minister thanked the members of the NA Standing Committee on Law and Justice for their input on the bill. \u201cThis bill was an old demand of the bar councils which said that indiscriminate use of 184(3) should be stopped,\u201d he added.
\nTarar said the bill aimed to make apex court proceedings transparent and it also included the right to appeal.
\nHe said that all institutions had to follow laws passed by Parliament. The minister quoted Article 191 of the Constitution, which says that \u201csubject to the Constitution and law, the Supreme Court may make rules regulating the practice and procedure of the Court\u201d.
\nLeader of the Opposition Raja Riaz praised the government\u2019s efforts in introducing the bill and said it would ensure the freedom of the judiciary and rule of law.
\nWhen he spoke, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif insisted that Parliament was not usurping the powers of the Supreme Court but rather legislating as per its constitutional right.
\nMinister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Mufti Abdul Shakoor said Parliament was a sovereign institution and its members had the right to legislate, being representatives of the people.
\nShortly after the bill was passed, the session was adjourned.
\nEarlier in the day, the Standing Committee on Law and Justice approved the cabinet\u2019s proposed amendments.
\nStanding committee panel session
\nThe bill \u2014 called \u201cSupreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023\u201d \u2014 cleared the panel with a few additional amendments. The panel session was chaired by PML-N MNA Bashir Mehmood Virk.
\nAdditional amendments included the right to appeal against the suo motu verdicts taken up to 30 days before the passing of the Lawyers\u2019 Protection Act were included in the bill along with the amendment that any case that involves interpreting the Constitution will not have a bench with fewer than five judges.
\nFederal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Minister of State for Law and Justice Shahadat Awan, PML-N\u2019s Mohsin Ranjha and MNA Ramesh Kumar Vankwani were also among those attending the meeting today.
\nIn the opening remarks of the meeting, Tarar lamented: \u201cFor the past year or so, two senior Supreme Court judges have not been seen [included] in any important bench. This should not happen.\u201d
\nSaying that suo motu authority was used as a \u201cone-man show\u201d, Tarar clarified: \u201cWe have seen from every angle that there is no need for a constitutional amendment for this.\u201d
\nHe further said, \u201cUnfortunately, there has not been a full court session of the Supreme Court for the past three years. It is the federal government\u2019s duty to fill the vacuum through legislation.\u201d
\nThe minister added that the government did not want to make such a law that can be challenged later on. \u201cThis was an old demand of the stakeholders, upon which legislation is being enacted now,\u201d he said.
\nTarar asserted: \u201cNot having the right to appeal against the decision of suo motu is against fundamental rights. To obtain the services of a lawyer of one\u2019s own choice is also everyone\u2019s right.\u201d
\nHe defended the government\u2019s move saying that when \u201cvoices from within the Supreme Court also arose, the decision of legislation was taken\u201d.
\nVirk, the standing committee\u2019s chairman, then asked: \u201cIs there anything in this bill that is against the Constitution?\u201d
\nAt this, PPP MNA Syeda Nafeesa Shah responded: \u201cParliament members are unanimous but there are some voices arising from outside Parliament. The legislation\u2019s timing is being objected upon. Some people are saying that Article 184(3) [of the Constitution] will need to be amended.\u201d
\nDetailing the use of suo motu powers, Tarar said: \u201cArticle 184(3) was used imprudently. [Former CJP] Iftikhar Chaudhry used the suo motu notice [powers] imprudently.
\n\u201cAfter Iftikhar Chaudhry, three chief justices [of Pakistan] did not use this authority. Though, [former CJP] Mian Saqib Nisar exceeded limits.\u201d
\nAt one point during the session, PTI\u2019s Vankwani said that there is an impression that the government is \u201cbulldozing matters\u201d by passing the bill.
\nHe suggested that it would be better to \u201cinclude the Supreme Court in the process\u201d to which Tarar responded that the apex court had \u201cdone nothing on the matter in so many years\u201d.
\nResponding to Vankwani\u2019s suggestion of taking the apex court\u2019s input on the matter, PML-N\u2019s Virk responded: \u201cShould permission be sought from the cause of the illness?\u201d
\nRanjha then said: \u201cLegislation is parliament\u2019s duty [while] the judiciary\u2019s duty is to interpret the law and the Constitution.
\n\u201cThe Parliament should do its job and the Supreme Court should do its own,\u201d he added.
\nRanjha further said that \u201cno such thing is being done in which we are crossing a line\u201d. PPP\u2019s Qamar then said, \u201cIf the intention is not well, then the right to appeal [the suo motu notice] can be sabotaged.\u201d
\nThe law minister then suggested changing the right to hear an appeal against a suo motu notice to five judges instead of three.
\nAt one point during the session, Ranjha demanded that the act be implemented retroactively, at which PPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar remarked: \u201cDo not ask for this. There will be allegations that this legislation is being done to provide relief to Nawaz Sharif.\u201d
\nSubsequently, the amendment to appeal against the suo motu verdicts taken up to 30 days before the passing of the Lawyers\u2019 Protection Act was included in the bill along with the amendment that any case on interpreting the Constitution will not have a bench consisting of less than five judges.
\nThe bill seeking the amendment was then approved by the standing committee, after which Tarar said that the Supreme Court Bar Association is of the view that Article 184(3) of the Constitution should be amended as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Assembly on Wednesday passed the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure), Bill 2023, which aims to deprive the office of the chief justice of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5653,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}