A Special Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court has been appointed to hold hearings into the Presidential Reference against the Hasba Bill (accountability law) passed by the Frontier provincial legislature.
The Bench, nominated by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, will meet here under him from Monday to determine if a provincial assembly could dent the national Constitution by passing a law like the so-called Hasba Bill. Its promoters claim that the bill was designed to enforce 'Islamic culture' under a stringent penal code.
The other judges on the nine-member bench, the largest since the turn of the century, will be: Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice M. Javed Buttar and Justice Saiyed Sayeed Ashhad.
Most of these judges are currently either on summer vacations or holding court at the provincial registries of the Supreme Court at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
The voluminous reference was filed by the Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan before a five-member bench working at Karachi last Friday. The Bench, accepting it for preliminary hearing, issued notices to the provincial advocates general to appear before it at Islamabad on July 25.
The Presidential Reference invokes Article 186 of the Constitution that provides the nation's highest judicial forum an advisory jurisdiction 'on any question of law' of public importance.
The main thrust of the reference is on the question if the provincial law now awaiting Governor's assent would be valid constitutionally and not in conflict with the fundamental rights and a number of other Articles.
It has also sought the opinion of the Supreme Court whether the provincial law was an 'encroachment on occupied field, caused a parallel judicial system' under a chain of Mohtasibs and thus undermine the independence of judicial system denying citizens their right to access justice.
Another question posed by the reference is if the Hasba Bill violates Article 20 that guarantees freedom to profess religion and manage religious institutions and also Article 10 that provides safeguards against arrest and detention, and rights of access to legal advice.
NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani, who heads the Muttahida Majlis-i-Ammal (MMA) government, has said that his government would defend the Hasba Bill before the Supreme Court.