Bill to raise number of judges off NA agenda

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to defer the introduction of a key bill — seeking to amend the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Act — in parliament due to a lack of consensus among the coalition partners, sources told Dawn.
During the National Assembly’s sitting on Monday, a couple of treasury lawmakers had hinted that the government planned to table the bill in the lower house of parliament today (on Friday), but the bill was not included in the orders of the day issued by the National Assembly Secre­tariat on Thursday evening.
But Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar is set to table the Supreme Court (Pra­ctice and Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024 in the Senate on Friday in the form of a bill, the agenda issued by the Senate Secretariat revealed.

President Asif Ali Zardari had promulgated the ordinance on September 20, following its approval by the federal cabinet. Under the previous version of the law, the three-judge body that deals with formation of benches was supposed to consist of three senior-most judges. The ordinance allowed the chief justice of Pakistan to pick any judge of the Supreme Court to be its third member.
Moreover, the government also wanted to increase the number of judges and make some more amendments, following the passage of the 26th Constitutional Amendment changing the procedure for the appointment of SC judges and the CJP.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Monday, PPP me­­mbers from Karachi — Nabil Gabol and Agha Rafiullah — had protested the governm­ent’s decision to drag the ongoing session while complaining about the absence of ministers in the house. They said it had become difficult for them to spend time in the federal capital and they wanted to visit their constituencies.

A government source told Dawn that the draft of the proposed law was not ready and would be shared with the ruling partners for consensus. The so­­urce said the government could easily get this bill passed as it required simple majority in the house, but it did not want to lose the confidence of the parties which had supported the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
Sources said that a number of MNAs had already left for their respective constituencies after adjournment of the sitting on Tuesday and they were not expected to return to Islamabad for Friday’s session after knowing that the legislation was not on its agenda. They said the government planned to get it pas­sed from parliament by Nov 6.
Talking to Dawn, JUI-F spo­kesman Aslam Ghouri said that so far, the government had not shared any draft or proposal related to the bill about the judiciary. “No one has even asked us about any new upcoming legislation, so how can we oppose it,” said the JUI-F spokesman.
According to the agenda issued for the NA’s Friday sitting, members belonging to the PTI would raise the issue of placing the names of several MNAs on the ECL, the PNIL, and the Passport Control List.
Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024