FCC faults SHC for judicial overreach

Sets aside suo motu orders against police officials

ISLAMABAD:

The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has ruled that the Sindh High Court (SHC) committed "judicial overreach" by exercising suo motu jurisdiction against police officials and interfering in policy guidelines without justification.

Such powers, the FCC stated, are not available to high courts under Article 199 of the Constitution.

In a two-page judgment, a two-member FCC bench set aside the SHC's orders dated October 27 and November 3, 2025, passed in Constitutional Petition No S-1139 of 2025, to the extent that they exercised suo motu jurisdiction against police officials and interfered in policy matters.

"The impugned orders…are set aside as being the result of assumption of suo motu jurisdiction which is not vested with the High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, as the observations contained therein amount to judicial overreach," the judgment stated.

During the proceedings, it was argued before the FCC that the SHC's directions relating to internal police reforms and monitoring of inquiry proceedings—issued in the exercise of its writ jurisdiction when those matters were not before the court in the petitions under consideration—amounted to judicial encroachment upon executive and administrative functions.

The Sindh advocate general also contended that the SHC judge committed judicial overreach while issuing the impugned orders and failed to appreciate that courts, as a general rule, should refrain from interfering in policy guidelines.

The FCC endorsed that position, observing in its order that it was "in full agreement" with the submissions made by the Sindh advocate general.

However, the constitutional court clarified that the inquiries already initiated and the investigations to be conducted against the petitioners in both cases would continue strictly in accordance with the law.

The FCC directed that the ongoing proceedings should be conducted independently and without being influenced by any observations or directions contained in the SHC's orders that went beyond the scope of the dispute before the learned single judge.

"The inquiries initiated and the investigation to be conducted against the petitioners, in both these petitions, shall continue in accordance with law without being influenced by any observation(s)/direction(s), those were beyond the lis (dispute) fixed before the learned single judge of the High Court in the constitutional petition," said the order authored by Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi.