NA rejects bill seeking right of appeal against SC's larger bench judgements

The bill was moved by a JUI-F lawmaker

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly rejected on Tuesday a bill seeking the review of judgements passed by larger benches of the Supreme Court.

Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) parliamentarian Aliya Kamran moved the bill, arguing that the public should have the right to file an appeal against a verdict issued by a larger bench of the top court.

However, the bill faced opposition by the government with Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Farogh Naseem asking how someone could move against a judgement handed down by a 17-member full bench of the apex court.

"We don't want to make our courts political and we must let them dispense justice in the right way," he said while speaking in the lower house.

NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri ordered a vote on the bill which was rejected after 8o MNAs voted against it with 71 in its favour.

Meanwhile, nine private members' bills were referred to the relevant committees.

The bills referred to the standing committees after introduction are: the Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Chamber of Agriculture Bill, 2019; the Prohibition of forced Religious Conversion Bill, 2019; the Eradication of Riba Bill, 2019; the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019] (Article 1, 51, 59, 106, 154, 175A, 198 and 218 and two identical bills titled the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019] (Article 51 and 106).