Supreme Court’s extraordinary year in the limelight

Reducing pending cases might be top court’s 2022 resolution

ISLAMABAD:

 

Secrecy of the ballot, presidential reference against a sitting judge, and the almost appointment of a woman to the highest court in the land for the first time in history were some of the issues that had the public transfixed to the legal landscape of the country.

While the summoning of the Prime Minister (PM) to the Supreme Court (SC) and high-profile cases like the demolition of the Nasal Tower in Karachi kept the country’s top court and its honorable justices in the news, up until November 30, 2021, pending cases in the apex court stood at 53,093 owing to superspreader related lockdowns affecting proceedings.

Pending cases aside, one of the presidential references that gained traction earlier during the year at the time of the Senate elections, which saw the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) various stakeholders put up a united front, the federal government sought the legal opinion of the apex court to hold Senate elections through open ballot without a constitutional amendment.

The other presidential reference that made headlines involved Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who interestingly seemed to be the highlight of a significant number of headlines that came out of the SC during the year.

Firstly, since May 2019, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led federal government had been making efforts regarding the removal of Justice Isa on account of non-disclosure of his family members’ assets in his wealth statement and the epilogue of these efforts came during the year when a majority of the judges accepted Justice Isa and others’ review petitions against the decision to refer the matter to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for an inquiry regarding assets of his family members.

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Secondly, on a later date the larger bench of the court led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed ruled that Justice Isa should not hear cases involving PM Imran Khan. Finally, another larger bench led by Justice Umar Ata Bandial while taking notice withdrew Justice Isa’s order regarding the protection of journalists and ruled that no bench could initiate suo motu proceedings without the approval of CJP.

A CJP approved anti-encroachment drive in Karachi, however, faced massive criticism on social media as apart from the demolition of the 15-storey Nasla Tower, it led to directions ordering the removal of encroachments around the infamous Gujjar Nala as well - directions which were critiqued for targeting the poorer segments of the city’s population and rendering them homeless.

While this criticism did not rattle the top court, it was a leaked audiotape allegedly of former CJP Saqib Nisar that put pressure on the top judiciary by feeding the notion that the SC is influenced.

However, CJP Gulzar vehemently denied allegations that the judiciary was being influenced by, or taking dictation from, other institutions, stating that: “Neither have I taken dictation from anyone nor has anyone ever dared to dictate me.”

Apart from the now-denied allegation problem, the Chairman of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), which is the CJP, and other justices who are the members of the JCP, had on hand the unique problem of filling six vacancies for judges in the next year. Despite the six available slots, this year the JCP failed to reach consensus on elevating a woman to the SC for the first time in the country’s 74-year history.

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Barrister Asad Rahim Khan, when inquired about Lahore High Court Judge Justice Ayesha Malik not being elevated, told The Express Tribune that despite there being no basis in law, the Constitution, or precedent, seniority was made the sticking point for the elevations of the most deserving High Court judges to the Supreme Court. "Seniority when conflated with elevation mars merit, intelligence, and competence," he opined.

While, the JCP could not agree on appointments, a three-judge bench led by the CJP was in unison when grilling PM Khan over the ongoing talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who was summoned before the court regarding the government’s failure in taking action against the then top security officials over the December 16, 2014 attack on the Army Public School (APS).

However, the united front image of the SC judges remained under question throughout the year with several sources alleging that the Justice Isa case severely affected the working of the apex court as it divided the honorable justices into two camps - it remains to be seen whether these allegations are true, as for now, a mountain-load of cases awaits the country’s highest court in the upcoming year.

“Pakistani judiciary must work with all its available resources day and night for the provision of timely justice and initiate out of box solutions which can involve technology to curb the delay in provision of justice at all levels,” Advocate Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmad Khokhar suggested while talking to The Express Tribune.