ISLAMABAD: The joint session of the parliament will be held today at 4 pm for discussion and approval of important matters including the Supreme Court (Practices and Procedures) 2023 clipping powers of the chief justice is also expected.
The session will also discuss the matter of funds’ approval for the Election Commission of Pakistan for elections in Punjab as the Supreme Court had previously ordered.
The sources said the government was also planning to amend the contempt of court law to skip provision of Rs21 billion to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as per the directions of the apex court.
They said that the government intended to bring changes to Article 204 of the Constitution which gives authority to the court to punish anyone who creates bars in the court’s process or disobeys its orders.
The officials of the law ministry had earlier said that the contempt law provision could be removed from the Constitution by a two-third majority.
The Top court had ordered the government to provide funds to the ECP for elections in Punjab on May 14. The court had directed it to provide funds till April 10.
On Sunday, the cabinet meeting held deliberations on the Supreme Court’s verdict regarding provision of funds to the ECP for elections. PM chaired the meeting. The sources said that the cabinet meeting left the matter of the funds to the parliament.
Last week, President Arif Alvi returned the bill clipping the powers of the CJP to the parliament, saying that “it was beyond the competence of the present parliament”.
The President said that returning bill to the parliament for its reconsideration was appropriate as per the provisions of the Article 75 of the Constitution.
Both the houses of the parliament last week approved the bill and sent it to the president for assent amid a deepening the political and constitutional crisis in the country over elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
PM Shehbaz Sharif later took to Twitter, criticized President Alvi for returning the bill and terming it “the most unfortunate”.
