SC stops registrar from entering PMDC office

The Supreme Court has asked Registrar Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Brigadier Hafizuddin Siddiqui (r) not to enter the PMDC office.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard the secretary Ministry of Health's appeal against the Islamabad High Court (IHC) order, in contempt petition, to open the PMDC building for the registrar and the employees.

The chief justice said; "You [registrar] will not enter the office of [the] PMDC."

Justice Ijazul Ahsan questioned, when the IHC itself declared the PMC law ultra vires then how the registrar, appointed under that law, can continue to work.

Hafiz Arfat Ahmed Chaudhry representing the PMDC registrar contended that the secretary Health had no power to question who should be the registrar of the PMDC, adding it was the council, and not the secretary Health to decide about the registrar.

He asked the court to let the adhoc council, decide the matter. Former chief justice Saqib Nisar on January 12, 2018 had dissolved the 35-member PMDC and substituted it with a nine-member ad-hoc council headed by former judge of Supreme Court Shakirullah Jan.

President Dr Arif Alvi on October 9, 2019 promulgated the Pakistan Medical Commission Ordinance, 2019, through that PMDC Ordinance, 1962, was repealed and council established thereunder was dissolved, and a new commission namely the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) was established.

However, the Islamabad High Court on February 12, 2020 declared Presidential Ordinance about dissolution of the PMDC illegal and issued directives to reinstate as many as 220 employees of the council.

The Health Ministry did not implement the order and again sealed the PMDC building, and stopped the council employees from entering it.

The registrar and employees filed contempt petition against the secretary Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and others, and ordered to immediately open the PMDC building.

The federation challenged the single bench verdict, and filed an intra-court appeal (ICA) in the IHC. In the meantime the PMDC registrar and employees filed the contempt petition against the secretary Health and others.

The federation has challenged the IHC order in the apex court. The bench, after hearing the arguments of the PMDC registrar's counsel and Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan reserved the judgment.

The ICA stated that the impugned judgment dated February 11, 2020 passed by the single judge in the chamber exercising powers under Article 199 of the Constitution of Pakistan is without jurisdiction, excess of jurisdiction, and hence calls for interference.

It adopted that the impugned judgment suffers from inherent jurisdictional defects and is against the basic constitutional principle of separation of powers, and hits the basic structure of Constitution.

"The learned judge in [the] chamber, while attributing mala fide to the president in exercise of his legislative power under the Constitution, has traveled beyond the jurisdiction vested in the Court, hence the impugned judgment [is] illegal and unlawful," said the ICA.

It added that the impugned judgment was violative to the constitutional norms, fundamental principles of constitutional jurisdiction in defiance to the well-settled principles, and tantamount to judicial legislation instead of interpretation and construction of Constitution.

"Without prejudice, the impugned judgment by declaring the PMC Ordinance ultra vires on the basis of factual findings and procedural impropriety has struck down a legislative enactment, which is beyond the jurisdictional power under Article 199 of the Constitution," said the ICA.