The ruling alliance on Thursday rejected a larger bench of the Supreme Court hearing a case pertaining to the bill passed by both the houses of the Parliament for limiting the power of the chief justice of Pakistan regarding suo motu notices and constitution of benches.
In its joint statement, the coalition parties in the government said the apex court’s move to from 8-member “controversial bench” even before the completion of legislative process was unprecedented in the country’s history and conduct of judicial proceedings.
“This act is tantamount to damaging the credibility of the superior court besides making the process of justice meaningless,” it said.
Taking exceptions against the constitution of the bench before the set bill was enacted, the statement likened the bench composition with the purported “divide” of the Supreme Court and also validated the ruling alliance’s earlier stance.
“The honourable judges of the apex court in their judgments themselves have also openly expressed their reservations over “one-man-show”, they recalled.
“Pakistan is a federating unit and non-inclusion of judges from smaller provinces – Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the bench is also regrettable,” it said. The statement said that the ruling alliance considers this move an attempt to curtail the Parliament’s power which would be resisted.
The constitution of the “disputed bench” in such haste and then fixing the case for hearing clearly indicated that what decision would come.
According to the statement, the action of the Supreme Court and the statement of bar councils on the formation of the controversial bench “is a clear manifestation that the action is not only against justice and fairness but also against the prevailing judicial procedures and established principles”.
‘All Pakistan Lawyers Convention’, held in Lahore, passed a resolution on October 12, 2019, demanding the Parliament to pass this law. Acting on the demand of the lawyers’ community, the Parliament presented the said bill, the statement added.
It was asserted in the statement that “every attempt to take away the authority of the Parliament and interfere in its constitutional jurisdiction will be resisted and there will be no compromise on the supremacy of the Parliament in the light of the Constitution of Pakistan.”
