PBC calls strike after SC forms bench to hear CJP powers bill

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) will take up today (Thursday) for hearing the petitions challenging the bill curtailing the powers of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), including initiation of suo moto action and formation of benches. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Bar Council has announced a boycott of the proceedings and called for countrywide strikes “against fixation of pleas in haste”.

An eight-member larger bench, headed by CJP Umer Ata Bandial, would hear different petitions against the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, though the apex court judges raising questions on the powers of the CJP would not be a part of the bench. Other members of the bench include Justice Ijazul Ahsen, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Sayyed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A Malik, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed.

Advocate Muhammad Shafay Munir had filed a petition in the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, challenging the SC Practice and Procedure Bill 2023 with the prayer that the bill should be declared unconstitutional and illegal. The petitioner submitted that the SC had the authority to make rules of the apex court, adding that the changes by the Parliament in the Supreme Court’s rules were illegal. The petitioner submitted that the powers of the Supreme Court could not be limited through an Act of Parliament under Article 70. Also, analyst Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain and anchorperson Sami Abraham also challenged the bill in the SC under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, making the Federation of Pakistan through the secretary of Law and Justice Division, minister of Law and Principal Secretary to the president as respondents.

Filed through Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique, the petitioners prayed to the apex court to declare the bill without lawful authority and of no legal effect and strike it down. They prayed that till the finalisation of the proceedings, the impugned bill be suspended. They said that the bill would be implemented as the president of Pakistan would not be required to sign it into law. They contended that the power and functions of the apex court including the one exercised by the chief justice of Pakistan were regulated by the Supreme Court Rules 1980 (the Rules), which had been indemnified under Article 270AA of the Constitution.

“These rules, read in the context of Article 191, show that neither the office of the CJP nor any judge of the apex court could be made a subject matter of the ordinary law, passed by the Parliament to put a clog on the discharge of their function,” the petitioner submitted. They also contended that the impugned actions and impugned bill were patently unconstitutional. The petitioners further submitted that the apex court, led by the chief justice of Pakistan with its judges, must be independent of all executive or legislative transgress to perform their constitutional obligations in providing justice to the people of Pakistan.

“The same could not be allowed to be compromised with regard to the function of the judicial organ of the state, the judges or the chief justice of Pakistan and or their independence as provided in the Constitution,” the petitioner contended, adding that this aspect has already been judicially determined in a number of judgments of the superior court. “In the presence thereof, it is unimaginable that the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan with respect to constitutional powers, inter alia, of suo motu could be allowed to be regulated by the Parliament,” the petitioners contended.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) announced a boycott of the court proceedings and observance of a countrywide strike against the fixation of the pleas against the bill clipping the CJP powers on Thursday (today).

A late-night announcement, made by PBC Vice Chairman Haroonur Rashid and Executive Committee Vice Chairman Hassan Raza Pasha, said that the Chief Justice of Pakistan constituted the 8-member bench in haste for hearing the petitions, filed against the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023. They said that the lawyers community would boycott the court proceedings across the country on Thursday.