ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday signed into law the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Amendment Ordinance 2024, legislation widely believed to have curtailed the powers of the country’s senior judiciary and which was passed by parliament last year but blocked by the top court.
The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023 was passed in the last days of the first term in government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. However, before the law could be enacted on April 21, 2023, an eight-member bench constituted by then Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial issued a stay order on it on April 13, 2023.
“Every cause, appeal, or matter before the Supreme Court shall be heard and disposed of by a Bench comprising the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the next most senior judge of the Supreme Court and a Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the Chief Justice of Pakistan from time to time,” the ordinance, which was signed into law, said.
One provision, which is widely seen as limiting the power of Supreme Court judges to initiate cases of public importance or fundamental laws on their own through suo moto proceedings, said a bench hearing a matter under Article 184(3) of the constitution would decide and identify through a “reasoned and speaking order” the question of public importance in the case and what fundamental right it was seeking to enforce.
Article 184 of the constitution confers original jurisdiction, the authority to hear a case at its initiation, often referred to as Public Interest Litigation, in the form of judicial review to Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Clause (3) of Article 184 is cited as the source of suo motu powers. In essence, it gives the apex court the extraordinary power to assume jurisdiction over any “question of public importance with reference to the enforcement of any fundamental right”.
Under the new law, each case would be heard in turn, that is the cases filed first will be heard first, and a reason furnished for taking up cases out of turn. All hearings will be recorded and transcripts publicly available.
Hearings on petitions against the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023 began in September 2023 and were broadcast live by Pakistan’s state television.
Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had taken up the petitions challenging the law as his first order of business shortly after taking oath the same month and had constituted a full-court bench of the apex court comprising all 15 judges.
Much-debated Pakistan Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Ordinance becomes law
https://arab.news/b5eqf
Much-debated Pakistan Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Ordinance becomes law
- Supreme Court cases to be heard by bench comprising chief justice, next most senior judge and SC judge nominated by CJ
- The law is widely seen as curtailing the powers of the senior judiciary to initiate cases on their own through suo moto proceedings
Pakistan defense minister warns of ‘more legal action’ against ex-spy chief
- Faiz Hameed, ISI’s director-general from 2019-2021, was sentenced to 14 years by military court this week
- Defense Minister Khawaja Asif alleges Hameed planned violent priotests led by ex-PM Khan’s party in 2023
ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday announced “more legal action” will be taken against former spy chief Faiz Hameed, days after he was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a military court.
Pakistan military’s media wing announced this week that Hameed, who was the director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from 2019 to 2021, has been sentenced to 14 years after being found guilty of misusing authority and government resources, violating the Official Secrets Act and causing “wrongful loss to persons.”
The former spy chief was widely seen as close to ex-prime minister Imran Khan. Hameed, who retired from the army in December 2022, is accused by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of bringing down the government of his elder brother, Nawaz Sharif, in 2017.
The PML-N alleges Hameed worked with then opposition leader Khan to plot Nawaz’s ouster through a series of court cases, culminating in the Supreme Court disqualifying of him from office in 2017 for failing to disclose income and ordering a criminal investigation into his family over corruption allegations. Khan’s party and Hameed have both denied the allegations.
“A senior officer and former head of the ISI has been convicted in a trial that lasted for a long period of 15 months,” Asif told reporters in Sialkot.
“There are more problems, charges on which legal action will be taken and that won’t take long.”
Asif repeated the PML-N’s allegations, accusing Hameed of having Nawaz disqualified through the court cases. He accused the former spy chief of propelling Khan to the office of the prime minister, blaming him for having leaders and supporters of the PML-N arrested during Khan’s premiership.
Pakistan military said this week that Faiz’s alleged role in “fomenting vested political agitation and instability in cahoots with political elements” was being handled separately. Many interpreted this as the military alluding to the May 9, 2023, nationwide unrest, when angry Khan supporters took to the streets and attacked military and government installations after he was briefly detained on corruption charges.
Asif said Faiz’s “brain and planning” was behind the May 2023 unrest.
“These two personalities can not be separated,” the defense minister said, referencing Khan and Hameed.
Senior military officers are rarely investigated or convicted in Pakistan, where the security establishment plays an outsized role in politics and national governance.
Hameed’s sentencing comes just days after Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir was appointed as Pakistan’s first chief of defense forces, marking a major restructuring of the military command.
Former prime minister Khan’s PTI party has distanced itself from Hameed’s conviction, referring to it as an “internal matter of the military institution.”
