ISLAMABAD: The coalition government on Thursday rejected formation of the apex court eight-member bench for hearing of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 curtaining the powers of the chief justice of Pakistan.
“This is equal to damaging the credibility of the country’s top court,” said the coalition government in its declaration.
They said that the formation of the bench at this stage would disrupt the dispensation of the justice, saying that such act was never seen ever before in the judicial history of the country. The coalition government said that the newly formed bench itself was an evidence of the division in the top court. They said that certain judges had already objected to formation of such benches as no judge from the KP or Balochistan was made part of this bench. Some judges, they said, also objected to the one-man show in the Supreme Court.
The coalition government said that they would not let powers of the parliament compromise, saying that the bench was constituted in haste as the bill has yet to be implemented. They questioned the formation of the bench, saying that how the bill which is yet to implemented could be challenged or taken up for hearing.
SC forms 8-member bench:
The top court on Wednesday formed an eight-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Sayyad Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, and Justice Shahid Waheed.
According to the roster, the bench is due to start hearing of the petitions challenging SC bill challenging the CJP powers at 11:30 am.
Advocate Muhammad Shafay Munir, Raja Amer Khan, Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain, and others filed the petitions against the bill recently passed by the parliament. The petitioners said that their pleas were to safeguard and secure the Constitution and to ensure the independence of the judiciary. The petitioners argued that they believe in the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary, and have consistently strived to protect these principles.
They made the federal government, represented by the secretaries of law, Senate, and National Assembly, as respondents in the petitions. The bill in question, titled the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, clipped the CJP’s powers to take suo motu notice in an individual capacity. The bill was passed by a joint sitting of the parliament earlier this month with some amendments, amid protests from PTI lawmakers.
Justices Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Aminuddin Khan, who had earlier ruled that the CJP did not have the authority to form special benches or select their members, are not part of the newly formed bench. Both the judges had ordered the postponement of all suo motu cases.
The order was subsequently annulled by a six-member larger bench. Justice Isa later released a judicial note that the bench did not “constitute a constitutional court.”
