The Federal Cabinet on Tuesday approved a bill which aimed at curtailing Chief Justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) powers to take suo motu notices and constituting benches of the Supreme Court.
The government’s decision to dilute the CJP’s powers regarding bench constitution and suo motu notice to a committee of the three senior most judges received the flak from the opposition leaders and legal experts who termed it a direct attack on the judiciary.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Senior Vice President Chaudhary Fawad Hussain quickly reacted to the development and condemned the government’s legislation on the matter.
He also rejected the amendments and said “Only an Elected Parliament has a right to do so after detailed debate.”
Fawad also accused the government of attacking the judiciary consistently.
For information of our readers, it is pertinent to mention here that the government of Israel has also tried to overhaul the judiciary but paused the legislation process after massive protest in Tel Aviv.
“Every cause, matter or appeal before the apex court would be heard and disposed of by a bench constituted by a committee comprising the CJP and the two senior-most judges,” said the bill passed by the cabinet.
It added that the decisions of the committee would be taken by a majority.
Regarding exercising the apex court’s original jurisdiction, the bill said that any matter invoking the use of Article 184(3) would first be placed before the abovementioned committee.
On appealing any verdict by an apex court bench which exercised Article 184(3)‘s jurisdiction, the bill said that the appeal will lie within 30 days of the bench’s order to a larger SC bench. It added that the appeal would be fixed for hearing within a period not exceeding 14 days.
The bill also proposed changes to other aspects of the law.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while speaking at the floor of the National Assembly lauded the dissenting note of two senior judges on a judgment of the apex court in a suo motu case regarding the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A day ago, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail of the Supreme Court (SC) had called for revisiting the power of the “one-man show” enjoyed by the chief justice.
The Parliament has also passed a resolution unanimously demanding non-interference of judiciary in the political and administrative matters.
