ISLAMABAD: The federal government will support a series of legislations of private members to increase the number of judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan from 17 to 23, eliminating the authority of suo moto of the Apex Court, repeal the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003, ban on the appointment of officers and servants of courts having dual nationality, and giving the right to overseas Pakistanis to contest elections and the right of vote.
If the Parliament approves the legislations, particularly, related to the increase in the number of judges of the Supreme Court, then the government may get benefit on hearing of its review petition of full bench (23) of the Supreme Court on reserve seats.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has already filed a review petition in the Supreme Court (SC) against the apex court’s verdict of July 12 granting reserved seats to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
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The government would also support the legislation for increasing the strength of High Courts judges and proposed legislation for oversees to reserve two seats in the National Assembly, two seats in the Senate and one seats of each province for overseas Pakistanis for right of vote and contesting election.
A total of seven bills including, The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2024, (Article-184); The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (Amendment in Article-51, 59 and 106); The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (Article-177, 193 and 208);The Contempt of Court (Repeal) Bill, 2024; The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (Article 198);The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2024 would be introduced in the National Assembly on private members’ day in the next week.
On Tuesday, these bills were part of agenda item of business of the National Assembly on private members’ day but the deputy speaker had to adjourn the House due to lack of quorum as pointed by Aurangzeb Khan Khichi of PTI. There were five bills of MNA Noor Alam Khan of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan (JUI-P) (Maulana Fazlur Rehman group), one bill of Danyal Chaudhry of PML-N and one bill of Changez Ahmad Khan of PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
While talking to this correspondent, Noor Alam Khan said that he could not introduce his five bills relating to dual nationality, right of vote and contest elections by fixing two seats each National Assembly, Senate and one seat in each provincial assembly. He said that his proposed legislations also relate to abolishing Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003, and to increase the strength of judges for hearing of review petition.
He said that he proposed to constitute a bench within one month for review petition.
He said that overseas Pakistanis should be given the opportunity to serve and represent them in the National Assembly, Senate and provincial assemblies. He said that his bill has proposed two seats in the National Assembly, two seats in the Senate and one seat in each provincial assembly.
There is a need for Constitutional amendments for five out of seven bills, and for this purpose support of 224 members (two-thirds majority of total members of the house of 336) is required. But two bills can easily pass from the National Assembly with simple majority. If the party of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other allies’ parties of the government support, then their strength becomes 221.
The government only need the support of three more members for a Constitutional amendment after this. There are eight independent members in the Lower House of the Parliament and the government could easily manage to get the support of three independent members.
There is a need of simple majority of the House for the passage of “The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2024”, of MNA Danyal Chaudhry of PML-N.
According to clause 2 of “The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2024”, available with this correspondent, “The number of Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan other than the Chief Justice shall be twenty-two (22).”
According to statement and objects and reasons of the bill, “increasing the number of judges in the Supreme Court of Pakistan is important because the Supreme Court of Pakistan, like many other courts, deals with a significant backlog of cases.
An increase in the number of judges can help in addressing the backlog more efficiently, ensuring that cases are heard and decided in a timely manner. Delayed justice often leads to a denial of justice. By increasing the number of judges, the Supreme Court can expedite the legal process, ensuring that justice is served more promptly.“
“More judges mean that the court can handle more cases simultaneously, reducing waiting times and making justice more accessible to all citizens, regardless of their location or status.”
“The Contempt of Court (Repeal) Bill, 2024” of Noor Alam Khan proposes to repeal the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003.
After approval of this legislation, the court will not have any authority to take action on its contempt.
According to “The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (Artilce-177, 193 and 208), “a person that has foreign dual nationality shall not be appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court, or a Judge of a High Court, or appointment by the Court of officers and servants of the Court.”
Under “The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2024” of Noor Alam Khan, “any person which has foreign nationality or dual nationality shall not be appointed as government servant.”
According to objects and reasons of “The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (Amendment in Article-51, 59 and 106)” of MNA Noor Alam, keeping in view the importance of overseas Pakistanis and to give them opportunity to serve and represent them in the National Assembly, Senate and Provincial Assemblies, this bill has been proposed. For that purpose, two seats in the National Assembly, two seats in the Senate and one seat in each Provincial Assembly have been reserved.
The whole Pakistan will be single constituency for seats reserved in the National Assembly, as well as, each Province will be single constituency for the seat reserved for each Province. On the seat reserved for overseas Pakistani in the Senate, the member will be elected by the National Assembly.“
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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