AGP admits two SC laws overlap

CJP welcomes suggestion to amend laws; says govt should consult judiciary when making laws about SC

ISLAMABAD:

While welcoming the state’s top law officer’s statement that there is a need to harmonize two new pieces of legislation with regard to judiciary, the top judge on Thursday said the government should consult with the Supreme Court when drafting laws that deal with the working of the court.

“There should not be unilateral legislation with regard to the judiciary. The government should hold consultation with the Supreme Court while making laws with regard to administrative affairs of the judiciary,” observed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial.

He was leading an eight-judge larger bench hearing petitions filed against the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023.

On March 29, the National Assembly passed the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure), Bill 2023, which sought to reduce the CJP powers to take suo motu action and constitute benches. The Senate endorsed the bill a day later on March 30.

The president, however, returned the bill to the parliament without signing it. The eight-judge larger bench of the Supreme Court on April 13 “pre-emptively” stopped the enforcement of the bill while hearing a number of petitions filed against the legislation.

However, the bill became a law on April 21, despite the top court’s order.

As the bench resumed hearing of the petitions on Thursday, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan said there is some overlap between the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023 and the Supreme Court (Review of Judgements and Orders) Bill, 2023.

“The sections dealing with filing of review petitions and hiring counsels are somewhat similar in both the law,” the AGP said, adding that the scope of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 is broader as it includes sections related to internal working of the SC.

“There is a need to resolve the question as to which law should be relied upon,” the AGP added.

The CJP welcomed the AGP’s “suggestion” to create harmony between the two laws, adding that it is encouraging that the government and the parliament are ready to amend the laws to harmonize them.

“Now there are two ways to create harmony among these two laws:

“The first way is that the government harmonizes the two laws on its own; the second way is that the parliament keeps making laws and we keep hearing the case. Let’s see who does it first. You take advice from the government. We will also review this suggestion,” he noted.

The counsel for the petition, Imtiaz Siddiqui, called attention to the fact that despite the court's orders, the parliament had not provided it with the details of its proceedings related to the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023.

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The CJP noted that the court came to know the decision of the parliament not to provide details of its proceedings to the court through newspapers.

“However, the parliament is probably unaware that all this record is available on its website,” he said, adding that the bench had also gathered that record from the webpage. The court later adjourned for one week.

SC (Review of Judgements and Orders) Act, 2023

The National Assembly on April 14 passed the Supreme Court (Review of Judgements and Orders) Bill, 2023, which was moved as a private member’s bill by MNA Shaza Fatima. The bill also received the seal of approval from the Senate—the upper house of parliament—on May 5.

The bill was sent for the approval of President Alvi, who on May 25 signed the act into law. On May 29, the Senate Secretariat issued its gazette notification which the AGP also submitted to the apex court.
This new law has enlarged the scope of review petitions, allowing some politicians including former premier Nawaz Sharif to file appeal against an SC order that resulted in his lifetime disqualification in July 2017.