Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Nadeem Afzal Chan – who is a Pakistan Peoples Party loyalist – seems adamant to scrutinise the apex court’s accounts.
The committee will decide the matter on Thursday after deliberating over the Supreme Court’s response, Chan told a PAC meeting on Tuesday.
The PAC has not only decided to revisit the policy of handing out plots to judges and bureaucrats, it has also made public two lists of containing names of those who have obtained one or more plot(s).
“Obtaining more than one plot by judges and bureaucrats also comes under the ambit of the National Reconciliatory Ordinance,” said Chan. “It is possible that we may not be able to get the plots back, but we will definitely bring an end to this discriminatory practice in the future.”
The General Headquarters (GHQ) ignored a request from the PAC for names of generals who were allotted plots. The committee sent a reminder to the military.
The issue of asking the Supreme Court to allow its registrar to appear before the committee was first raised during the tenure of Chan’s predecessor Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. Chan also believes in making the SC accountable for its expenditures.
The SC, on the other hand, has questioned the authority of PAC. “The Supreme Court is not part of the government and the rules only empower the PAC to examine accounts showing misappropriation of money granted by the National Assembly. Since the sum allocated to the SC is charged expenditure on federal consolidated funds, it is not in principle granted by the assembly,” it said in its response.
The SC also maintained that under Article 68 of the Constitution, no discussion shall take place in Parliament with respect to the conduct of judges with regard to their duties or their financial and administrative affairs.
The list does not contain the name of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and 11 other sitting judges, but does cite Supreme Court Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain as a beneficiary.
The PAC’s list which contains the names of 21 judges includes:
Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan
Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani
Justice Nasirul Mulk
Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali
Justice Arif Hussain Khilji
Justice (retd) Mansor Ahmad
Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi
Justice Faqir Khokhar
Justice Syed Saeed Ashad
Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar
Justice Sardar Raza Khan
Justice Javed Iqbal
Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday
Justice Falak Sher
Justice Syed Jamshed Ali
Justice Zahid Hussain
Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmad
Justice Ghulam Rabbani
Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmad
Justice Mohammad Sair Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, July 4th, 2012.
COMMENTS (35)
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If a little deeper investigation is allowed, we will find that most of the plots will be given in Nawaz tenures..hence the mystery of Azaad Adliya will be solved......
@Tahir:
Article 68 doesn’t apply to registrar of SC as he is not a judge and yet he is taking cover of this article only meant for judges. He is in contempt of Parliament by refusing to comply. Secondly article 68 pertains to the official conduct of judges and that is protected but criminal acts such as taking plots etc or embezzling money does not come under professional conduct of judges and hence is not protected.
As per socalled of allotment plot only one plot can give to a family. If we searchabout the allotment then we can find at least one million politicians, member parliaments, army and civil servents, get allotment of more then two plot. As per law plot could get allot if person have no house. Therefore nationalised all immoveable property and all occopant be declear to be owner till death. This act also minimize corruption and 80% corruption will stop. Saad Shibli Asc
@Aftab and why would the holy cow be protected with the article 248. Get rid of all these non-sense articles which protects anybody of any prosecution.
It is time to scrap this Article 68 which gives immunity to those who have always sided with undemocratic forces ........ history of our country says so. Why do they consider themselves above the law and why they want Article 248 to be questioned? I think this has now become a public interest case. Someone should file a case to get this Article 68 out of our 1973 constitution. It is too much. There should be no holy cows in our system.
Every one in this country must be accountable, why plots are being given to generals, Judges and bureaucrats (Is it not a shape of bribe, just to please high ranking officers). they earn highest salaries in the Govt. sector. Even they are bien given plots wothing million of rupees why. Other citizens of Pakistan who are not given Govt. job suffer many times. On one hand they can not acquire a suitable job and a piece of land to live, No. of such citizens are in millions. Sorry for the Govt policies, Govt and Govt Officers facilitate eachother............?????????????
PAC are acting beyond their scope. Rather than passing and implementing accountability bill the govt is just flipping flopping in despair.
Everybody should be accountable for themselves, be it generals ,judges or parliamentarians but this is not the forum which we deserve. PAC is just a parliamentary committee who has no powers whatsoever.
Bring a proper law which even scrutinies the president and the pm.
Stop playing with people's emotions .....
I tend to agree with the Supreme Court on the constitutional interpretation of charged expenditure.However,it appears to be only a clash of egos and tit-for-tat is being resorted to in the two camps.Where would this end? PAC should be a neutral body and attempting to show the fallibility of the other party at all costs tantamount to taking sides.Would it go into the whole kitty of plots given on political considerations to other groups also ( a response from some is unlikely) ? There are many tender spots everywhere. Let us fight a battle of principles and not lead people to a war of meaningless consequence.Why are we bent upon washing our linens in public and bring bad name to the country all the time? If the intention is to subject the judiciary to some brick-throwing, kudos to PAC as you can see from the above.But aren't we all living in glasshouses?
Hehehe... preaching is so easy. Nobody becomes great by pretending to be great. To be great, you need a lifetime of clean deeds behind you.
So much for a clean judiciary !! How come nobody can audit their accounts? Who are they? Gods??
even a clerk of supreme court has immunity but not the president.
Time has come for The entire Nation to see the true faces of these Jurists! They have been doing judicial activism openly, considering themselves above law and beyond every limit. Any attempt to make them or their family members accountable is always termed as a plot against judiciary which is completely wrong. Very soon bunch of losers who;s main thrivel in politics is Supreme Court by filing petitions and taking relief endlessly. How about making the former CJ LHC Khawaja Sharif accountable for his historic verdict "No Cases can be reopened/initiated against Sharif Brothers" and Sharif Brothers since then have returned this obligation in letter and spirit by coming to the PCO Judges rescue whenever they were found wanting
hahahaha...what an irony!!! the courts which leave no stone unturned to humiliate others in the name of accountability are themselves escaping it...what a shame!!!
Sc and CJ are acting as if they are above our laws, Constitution. and above accountability. This is the most corrupt judiciary in Pak history and it should be held accountable and punished. SC think they are God and nobody can touch them. All of them should be dismissed and new honest and competent judges in their place appointed who abide by the Constitution and Pak laws.
The price of a plot in posh areas of Islamabad is not less than 3 crore, that mean our judges are directly responsible for looting approximately 60 crore rupees of the nation, disgusting.
@confused citizens
Learn to read between the lines, what's happened here is the PPP government has used a body (the PAC) cleverly to investigate the judges which are not even under the PAC's mandate! This is not to say the judges are above the law, but the PAC is for investigating parliamentarians, not judges
For 65 years we have lived with the Army thinking that they have the right to expropriate the nation's land, budget and money. The country's development has suffered due to a bloated army that has never met a battle they couldn't lose. In return, we got arrogance where the vast corruption in military budgets and assets is not subject to inspection and prosecution.
Joining the military, we now have the judiciary who think they also deserve the same exalted status. It is bad enough that the CJP's son obtained admission into a medical college illegally and that the CJP pretends to be unaware of the vast ill-gotten wealth his son has amassed. We even had the CJP tried to manipulate the proceedings against his son. Now we have the Supreme Court hiding its accounts to keep mismanagement of funds out of the public eye. The only heights Pakistan seems to be scaling are in incompetence and corruption.
It is not a pleasant site when accountability happens to oneself. I hope corruption of judges and lawyers come out in the open. How most of them can be bribed to clear cases in days while innocents rot in jails for decades.
Dirty hands can not clean the things only clean hands can. no one should be above the check of law, once exception created for some will expand to cover others. Love you all and Pakistan.
What hypocrisy by the military and the judges. They should be ashamed of themselves. Go civilians
"the Supreme Court has refused to allow the parliamentary anti-corruption watchdog to quiz its registrar over the apex court’s financial accounts." Our revered judges are very clean and they are not above the law, so what's to hide!!! If Umar (RTA) can be accounted for, our so honest judges don't have any thing to hide and they will allow an audit. Let's hope so.
SC has given itself both immunity and NRO. Previously Army had it too. Only a civilian cannot have immunity even if its mentioned in the constitution.
The PAC is a joke. The other day we had the NAB chairman talking about not using NAB for political victimisation. I think that is the new job of the PAC now.
SC is paid by the public and as such public has every right to know that their money is spent honestly. The fact that SC is hiding the accounts seems to suggest something is not quite right. This SC does not think it is answerable to anyone...like God. Oh the arrogance.
Is the Supreme Court above the law.
Ah so according to the SC, even though the PResident has immunity per your own constitution, he should be made accountable but the SC registrar somehow has immunity (not arising from any law) but before the judiciary chooses to grant it to him. Wah!
So it is so hard for the Supreme Court to understand the article 248 of Constitution regarding immunity of Constitution but parliament cannot even question the judges as to how they spend tax payers money?
Chief tere dohray miyar: beshumar beshumar!
These PCO's Judges Think themselves Above the Law & Untouchable . . . .!!!!
"The SC also maintained that under Article 68 of the Constitution, no discussion shall take place in Parliament with respect to the conduct of judges with regard to their duties or their financial and administrative affairs." ABOVE THE LAW, ARE THEY...????
Army generals & SC judges think themselves unaccountable . . . . !!!!
Not in my back yard
Obviously there is some embezzlement. Giving funds for the judiciary doesn't mean that a judge should put it in his pocket. There are no holy cows
If they are clean, why hide the details. Why not open for everyone, freedom of information act.
Okay this discussion is the discussion of conduct, then hiding the details means conduct unbecoming.