ISLAMABAD: A total of eight bills were introduced in the National Assembly on private members’ day regarding eliminating the authority of suo moto of the apex court; repealing 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.
However, the Speaker National Assembly has to defer “The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2024” of Danyal Chaudhry of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on strong arguments of Barrister Gohar Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as he said that a private member could not introduced a bill under Articles -74, 81, 90 as appointment of judges falls in charge expenditure relating to money bill.
He said that salaries and perks and privileges of judges relating to money bill and the government could only introduce such legislation.
Bill seeking increase in number of SC judges tabled in Senate
Eight bills were laid before the house as: The Constitution Amendment Bill, 2024, (Article 184); The Criminal Laws Amendment Bill, 2024, 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 Allocation of Special Seats for Deserving Persons in Universities Bill, 2024.
When Danyal Chaudhry tabled the bill for introduction, Barrister Gohar raised objection on it and said that a private member could not move such bill under rule 118(3) of the National Assembly.
He said while reading Article-81, “Expenditure charged upon Federal Consolidated Fund, the following shall be expenditure charged upon the Federal Consolidated Fund: -(a)the remuneration payable to the President and other expenditure relating to his office, and the remuneration payable to- (i) the Judges of the Supreme Court [and the Islamabad High Court] (ii) the Chief Election Commissioner; (iii) the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman;(iv) the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly; (v) the Auditor-General, (b) the administrative expenses, including the remuneration payable to officers and the Supreme Court, the Islamabad High Court, the department of the Auditor-General, the Office of the Chief Election Commissioner and of the Election Commission and the Secretariats of the Senate and the National Assembly.”
He said that while reading Article-74, “A money bill or a bill or amendment which if enacted and brought into operation would involve expenditure from the Federal Consolidated Fund or withdrawal from the Public Account of the Federation or affect the coinage or currency of Pakistan or the constitution or functions of the State Bank of Pakistan shall not be introduced or moved in Parliament except by or with the consent of the Federal Government.”
About the bill relating to constitutional amendments proposed by MNA Noor Alam, Barrister Gohar said that under rule-118(3), a private member has to consent of the government before moving any bill for Constitutional amendment.
He said there is a need to increase working days of judges, instead of enhancing the strength of judges of Supreme Court and High Courts. He said the total number of working days of the judges of the Supreme Court is just 105 in a year, adding even out of these days, the judges go on annual vacations from June 10 to July 14.
He said that in India there are only 33 judges of the Supreme Court for a population of 1.40 billion.
While responding to Gohar, Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar admitted that appointment of judges is indirectly linked with charge expenditure. He said there is also issue of annual holidays of the judges. He said that judicial reforms are the top priority of the present government. He said the government is actively working on it over the last five months.
While responding to a question from Aliya Kamran, the minister said if the government wants to increase the strength of judges then it would openly bring legislation in the House.
“The Contempt of Court (Repeal) Bill, 2024” introduced by 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 caluse-4 of The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (Article-177, 193 and 208) proposed by Noor Alam, “a person holding dual nationality or citizenship of any foreign country shall not be entitled to appoint as an officer or servant of any Court.”
Under “The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2024” tabled by 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)” introduced by 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.
According to objects and reasons of the bill, “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.”
According to objects and reasons of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2024, “at present order involving matters of such public importance as made by the Supreme Court Benches consisting of two or three judges.
Keeping in view the importance of this jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, it is proposed that such orders should be made by a larger Bench of Supreme Court consisting of not less than mine judges.
The proposed amendment provided for an appeal within thirty days of an order of the Supreme Court under clause (3) of Article 184, to be heard by a Bench larger than the Bench which had passed the order under appeal.“
Later, the National Assembly passed a resolution recommending the government to take immediate steps for the provision of state-of-the-art medical facilities in federal capital hospitals and high quality healthcare for all patients.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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