President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Yasin Azad will take up the matter relating to Supreme Court Registrar's appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during his meeting with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry next week.
Talking to Business Recorder on Saturday, he said the issue would be discussed with the Chief Justice during the jurists' conference scheduled for October 19. In a consultative meeting, the PAC accepted the offer of SCBA President to talk to the Chief Justice and persuade him to ask the SC registrar to appear before the PAC, thereby avoiding a confrontation. In the meeting, PAC Chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal said the committee would wait for Azad's response otherwise it would use its powers to force the SC Registrar to appear before it.
Responding to a question, Azad made it clear that public representatives had the right to know the details of money spent by any publicly-funded entity. When asked if "conduct of any Judge" referred to in Article 68 of the constitution included the judiciary's administrative powers which cannot be discussed in the National Assembly, Azad said that it did not bar the PAC from summoning the Registrar. President SCBA reiterated that PAC has nothing to do with the expenditure slots in the Supreme Court but at the same time it is the responsibility of the body to evaluate money spent from the national exchequer.
A constant reference was made by several analysts who supported the judiciary's stance for disallowing the Registrar to attend the PAC meeting to Article 82 (1) which stipulates, "So much of the annual budget statement as relates to expenditure charged upon the federal consolidated fund may be discussed in, but shall not be submitted to the vote of, the National Assembly".
According to sources, the Supreme Court budget is charged upon the Federal Consolidated Fund which guarantees true independence of the judiciary providing financial independence for fair and impartial decisions on matters of adjudications. A Supreme Court verdict in Sharaf Faridi case in 1993 rendered the Chief Justice of Pakistan competent to make re-appropriation of the amounts from one head to another, create new posts, abolish old posts or change their nomenclature and upgrade or downgrade within the budgetary allocations.
Sources also said that an Accounts Officer of the Accountant General of Pakistan operates on the premises of the Supreme Court building whereas Auditor General of Pakistan is communicated to conduct audit of the apex court budget every year. An official of Auditor General of Pakistan confirmed that each year the audit of SC was conducted by the auditor and posted in the SC.