ISLAMABAD : An eight-judge larger bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday is hearing petitions filed against the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, which curtails the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) powers to initiate suo motu proceedings and constitute benches on his own.
Besides Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial himself, the larger bench comprises Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed.
As the hearing commenced, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan and the petitioner’s lawyer Advocate Azhar Siddique were present in the courtroom.
Petitioner Raja Amir’s lawyer, Azhar Siddique, opened the arguments and stated that the case was of “great importance” due to the ongoing situation. He added that after the Qasim Suri case, the political divide across the aisles had increased significantly.
Siddique continued that the political crisis in the country had proliferated after the restoration of the National Assembly.
He further argued that the federal government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were not willing to hold elections, thus the court itself had to take notice of the matter and order the ECP to conduct polls.
“On April 3, the court ordered elections, however, after the court’s directives to follow the Constitution, more problems were created. The court and judges were criticised personally, ” he said.
Siddique held government ministers and parliamentarians responsible for this.
The lawyer stated that the proposed legislation interfered with the independence of the judiciary.
He detailed that after approval from both houses, the bill was sent to the president who raised objections and sent the bill back to the assembly, however, the president’s objections were not reviewed. He added that the bill will become law in ten days after approval by the joint session.
“Under Article 191 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court makes its own rules,” he said.
Ahead of the hearing, a large number of lawyers, including pro-PTI lawyers, were present outside the top court. PTI leader Azam Swati was also present outside the SC.
Slogans were raised by the lawyers against the government and in favour of the judiciary.
The petitions
Three petitions have been filed in the top court against the bill so far. Two of them were filed by citizens Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain and Raja Aamir Khan through their lawyers Advocate Tariq Rahim and Azhar Siddique.
In the petitions, the federation, law ministry, principal secretary to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and principal secretary to President Dr Arif Alvi have been named as respondents.
The petitions argue that the proposed bill was based on “bad faith” and was “fraudulent” with the Constitution. They request the SC to nullify the proposed bill as “unconstitutional” and “illegal”.
The court has also been asked to suspend the proposed law until a decision on the petition was made and to prevent the president from signing the bill.
