Judicial oversight: SC bench to begin review of NRO

Apex court to also begin review of the 18th Amendment.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court has constituted a 17-member bench to review the petitions against the National Reconciliation Ordinance and the 18th amendment to the constitution, in what appears to be a new phase of the clash between the government and the higher judiciary.

The chief justice will preside over the bench which will begin hearings on the NRO in the second week of April and on the 18th Amendment in the third week.

The NRO, which dropped corruption charges against several thousand bureaucrats and politicians, was declared unconstitutional and all orders passed in favour of NRO beneficiaries were also annulled.

The short order against the NRO was issued by a 17-member bench on December 16, 2009 and stated that the presidential ordinance, issued by former President Pervez Musharraf, provided legal cover to corruption which left the poor of the country at the mercy of God.

The cases against NRO beneficiaries were revived and courts were ordered to begin proceedings against them. The PPP-led administration filed a review petition against the verdict after addressing some of the court’s objections.

On October 21, 2010, the court ruled against some provisions of the 18th amendment to the constitution. Around 16 petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, by the Supreme Court Bar Association, civil society groups and Abdul Hafeez Pirzada against certain provisions of the amendment.

They argued that the process of judicial appointments was significantly altered by the newly-inserted Article 175-A. This article introduces a system by which a parliamentary committee may reject the judicial commission’s nominations for judges on the superior courts of the country. The petitioners argued that the ‘primacy’ of the chief justice in judicial appointments had been compromised by the amendments.

The Supreme Court referred the issue back to Parliament, subject to the caveat that the legislature’s decision had to be in line with the court order. The order refers to the arguments raised by petitioners to allow the ‘judiciary to function independently and confirm the separation of powers’.

The court ordered amendments to Article 175A. As a result, the constitutional reform committee made changes in accordance with the court order in the 19th Amendment, which passed Parliament on December 21, 2010. It is expected that the court will decide whether the 19th Amendment was a sufficient response to their previous ruling.

Meanwhile the chief justice has also constituted a Shariat Appellate Bench to hear criminal and civil Shariat appeals and petitions in the Supreme Court. The bench will start hearing cases from April 25. The composition of the bench will be announced later.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 01^st, 2011.