By Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan said on Wednesday that no proposal or bill was under consideration of the government to limit the power of the judiciary, its independent working and institutional authority.
In a statement here on Wednesday, he said the government had neither prepared any constitutional bill nor supported any legislative proposal regarding appointment of judges in apex court or superior courts.
Babar Awan said no proposal was also under consideration regarding power of the Supreme Court and authority of the President about it, increase in age limit of high courts’ judges and their seniority.
The government, he said, fully believes in complete freedom of judiciary and its institutional authority.
He said the government does not support a bill proposed by an opposition member in Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Judges.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan People’s Party welcomed the move to regulate the exercise of suo motu powers of the Supreme Court and limitations in deciding cases of misconduct against judges as “much-needed steps in judicial reforms in the country”.
According to the amendments, a reference on account of misconduct against a judge of the superior judiciary will also be decided by the Supreme Judicial Council within 90 days.
“The manner of taking suo motu notices, the finality of far-reaching verdicts without right of appeal and concentration of powers in the hands of one individual have long been agitated by the bar and civil society with calls for urgent reforms,” said the secretary-general of the PPP Parliamentarians Farhatullah Babar while giving PPP’s stance on the approved amendments.
Earlier, the bipartisan Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Judges on Tuesday endorsed the amendments proposed by Senator Farooq Naek to regulate powers of the Chief Justice of Pakistan under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution that allows the apex Court to take up human rights cases on its own initiative.
Babar said the proposed reforms have bipartisan political support in the Parliament, the bar and the civil society in this atmosphere of political polarization.
He said the verdict last week of the Supreme Court declaring Honorable Chief Justice as the sole authority to invoke suo motu powers, instead of reforming and streamlining the system, had further concentrated powers in the hands of one individual.
According to the amendment, at least three judges would exercise the suo motu powers whose order may be appealed within 30 days to be decided by a 5-member bench within 60 days during which the order shall not be implemented.
Farhatullah Babar said that of all the State institutions, the Supreme Court alone had the powers to decide the jurisdiction and powers of other institutions.
“This is an awesome power that must be exercised with great caution, humility and oversight and not in a manner that appeared arbitrary or whimsical”.
He said without limitation on the exercise of this awesome power, a Court may end up expanding its own powers at the expense of other democratic institutions which will be detrimental to the federal parliamentary structure, he added.
Farhatullah Babar recalled that a reference had been filed against CJ Saqib Nisar by Women Action Forum and over one hundred members of civil society when he was in office, but was not taken up during his tenure. “After Saqib Nisar’s retirement, the reference was returned without action. It raised questions that how long a reference can be left unprocessed and uninvestigated,” he said.
