ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly cleared Wednesday a bill that will clip the Supreme Court chief justice’s power to take suo moto notice in an individual capacity and transfer that privilege to a three-member committee of senior judges.
The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, will now go to the Senate, the upper house, which is scheduled to take it up Thursday. The National Assembly is the lower house.
PM Shehbaz Sharif’s eight-party coalition government drafted and pushed the bill after two judges of a five-member SC bench raised questions over the powers of the chief justice while hearing a petition by ousted premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on the election commission (EC) postponing polls in Punjab province. The judges had said that the apex court “cannot be dependent on the solitary decision of one man, the chief justice”.
The crisis originated in April last year when Imran and his government were ousted in a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly and he launched a countrywide campaign soon after demanding immediate national elections.
The campaign failed to move the government and Imran reacted by dissolving the PTI-governed assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces this January. It was a pressure tactic as the Constitution mandates elections within 90 days of an assembly’s dissolution.
But EC steered clear of announcing an election schedule, while President Arif Alvi, a PTI loyalist, unilaterally declared polls in the two provinces on April 9 this year. As the crisis oscillated, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial took suo motu cognizance of the issue on February 23 and constituted a nine-member bench to hear the case. But four judges recused themselves from it.
The top court ordered EC in a 3-2 verdict on March 1 to announce an election schedule for the two provinces, and the latter obliged two days later by announcing polls in Punjab on April 30. But EC withdrew its schedule last week, citing security and financial issues, and postponed the polls to October 8.
PTI responded quickly by approaching the top court on the legality of EC’s decision to push back the elections. The government countered by tabling a bill in parliament to curtail the chief justice’s powers by constituting a three-member committee. The chief justice and two senior judges will make up the panel, but only majority decisions—like 2-1 or 3-0 verdicts—will be deemed valid.
The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, will now go to the Senate, the upper house, which is scheduled to take it up Thursday. The National Assembly is the lower house.
PM Shehbaz Sharif’s eight-party coalition government drafted and pushed the bill after two judges of a five-member SC bench raised questions over the powers of the chief justice while hearing a petition by ousted premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on the election commission (EC) postponing polls in Punjab province. The judges had said that the apex court “cannot be dependent on the solitary decision of one man, the chief justice”.
The crisis originated in April last year when Imran and his government were ousted in a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly and he launched a countrywide campaign soon after demanding immediate national elections.
The campaign failed to move the government and Imran reacted by dissolving the PTI-governed assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces this January. It was a pressure tactic as the Constitution mandates elections within 90 days of an assembly’s dissolution.
But EC steered clear of announcing an election schedule, while President Arif Alvi, a PTI loyalist, unilaterally declared polls in the two provinces on April 9 this year. As the crisis oscillated, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial took suo motu cognizance of the issue on February 23 and constituted a nine-member bench to hear the case. But four judges recused themselves from it.
The top court ordered EC in a 3-2 verdict on March 1 to announce an election schedule for the two provinces, and the latter obliged two days later by announcing polls in Punjab on April 30. But EC withdrew its schedule last week, citing security and financial issues, and postponed the polls to October 8.
PTI responded quickly by approaching the top court on the legality of EC’s decision to push back the elections. The government countered by tabling a bill in parliament to curtail the chief justice’s powers by constituting a three-member committee. The chief justice and two senior judges will make up the panel, but only majority decisions—like 2-1 or 3-0 verdicts—will be deemed valid.