A bill to amend the Contempt of Court law to provide for the punishment of imprisonment and fine in case of criminal and judicial contempt of court and for a fine of Rs100,000 only in case of civil contempt is on the Senate agenda for Monday.
The mover Senator Farhatullah Babar has said that it is an acknowledged principle that the dignity of a judge and courts must rest more on the conduct of honourable judges, the soundness of their verdicts rather than resorting to the contempt of court law.
Dignity of courts that rests merely on resort to contempt law is to make the dignity rest on fragile and sandy foundations, he argued.
The dignity of a court is seen to be resting on surer foundations according to the statement of objects and reasons.
Another Bill moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar seeks to amend the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Act 2103 requires that Executive Committee and Board of governors may meet as and when required but necessarily every quarter in case of the former and once a year in case of BoG.
According to the statement of objects and reasons ever since the NACTA Act was enforced the Board of Governors headed by the Prime Minister and comprising several ministers had not met even once. The existing provision of meeting every quarter is too soon and this is one reason that it has not met even once so far. The Executive Council, which is the implementing body, should be required to meet at regular intervals but in the existing law there is no mention of how often it should meet. There is thus a lacunae which the Bill seeks to remove by binding the Executive Council to meet at any time but necessarily once in a quarter and the BoG to meet as and when required and at least once in a year.