• Move that increased powers of CJP on bench formation sent to standing committee
• Body agrees to increase number of SC judges from 17 to 25
• Policy to promote use of EVs being readied

ISLAMABAD: A controversial ordinance promulgated by President Asif Ali Zardari in September giving a dominant role to the chief justice of Pakistan in the formation of benches landed in the Senate on Friday.

The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance 2024, was laid in the house by Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar and referred to the standing committee concerned by the deputy chairman.

According to sources, the ordinance is likely to be placed before the house in the form of a bill next week.

The ordinance changes the composition of the committee that forms benches and fixes cases under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023. The three-member committee originally comprised the chief justice and two senior most judges of the court. Now it will consist of the chief justice, the next most senior judge, and a judge to be picked by the chief justice.

“Every cause, appeal or matter before the Supreme Court shall be heard and disposed of by a bench constituted by the committee comprising the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the next most senior Judge of the Supreme Court and a Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, from time to time,” the ordinance reads.

Another significant change is about handling of cases under Section 184(3) of the Constitution. The ordinance makes it mandatory to document why a particular case is considered a matter of public importance before it is taken up by the court. A formal order, under the prop­osed amendment, must clarify whether the case pertains to public interest or involves human rights issues.

“A Bench hearing a matter under clause (3) of Article 184 of the Constitution shall, before proceeding with the matter on merits, decide and identify through a reasoned and speaking order the question of public importance involved in the matter and the fundamental right which is sought to be enforced,” it reads.

The ordinance also takes away the power of the apex court to take up a case for hearing out of turn.

“Unless a transparent criteria is already mentioned or the applicable law requires a decision within a stipulated time, every cause, matter or appeal in the Supreme Court shall be heard at its turn based on first in, first out, that is to say, the cases filed first shall be heard first. Any Bench hearing a case out of its turn shall record its reasons for doing so,” one of the proposed amendments says.

Another clause reads: “Hearing of every cause, matter or appeal in the Supreme Court shall be recorded and transcript thereof duly prepared. Such recordings and transcripts shall be made available to the public.”

Number of judges

In a separate development, a Senate panel agreed to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court from 17 to 25, amidst opposition from the PTI and JUI-F.

The bill, moved by Senator Abdul Qadir, was thoroughly discussed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice held here with Farooq H. Naek in the chair.

It may be recalled that the bill introduced in the house had proposed to increase the number to 20 from 17.

Uplift projects

Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal informed the Senate that the government lacked capacity to adequately fund mega development projects in the country.

“This is an extremely extraordinary situation. The government is left with Rs10 trillion revenues after excluding share of provinces which straightaway goes in debt servicing,” he said.

The minister pointed out that zero balance is left after repayment of debts and more money is to be borrowed for defence and development budgets, salaries, pensions and subsidies.

He said this was not sustainable and taxation reforms were essentially required to stop tax leakages and increase tax-to-GDP ratio.

The minister’s remarks came after members from both sides of the aisle raised alarm over what they called discrimination with smaller provinces and an inordinate delay in completion of projects there.

Mr Iqbal, however, blamed the inefficiency and lack of administrative capacity as well as an ineffective oversight for this state of affairs.

He recalled that at the time of 18th Amendment he had raised the issue of capacity and stressed that the aspect of capacity building has to be looked into while devolving powers to the federating units and had warned that it would weaken the federation instead of strengthening it.

He cited the examples of huge difference in the procurement prices of the same item for public sector organisations in different provinces. “This points to lack of administrative capacity and pilferage,” he remarked. He also said that an amount of Rs10 billion had been allocated for a water supply scheme in Quetta, but an audit could not find the trace of even a single pipe.

“The federal government cannot improve administrative capacity of the provinces. This is the job of their elected representatives to oversee the provincial administration,” Ahsan Iqbal said, adding that a total of 200 PSDP projects were underway in Balochistan, with an estimated cost of Rs1,429bn. He said Rs130bn had been earmarked for these projects.

Electric vehicles

Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain told the house that the government was formulating a policy to promote the use of electric vehicles (EV) which will be unveiled during the current month. He said the government had identified 40 places on motorways for establishing charging points to facilitate the EV users.

He said that the Engineering Development Board had issued 51 assembling and manufacturing certificates to produce two- and three-wheeler EVs in the country. He informed the house that 31 EV manufacturing companies had applied for the licenses to produce four-wheelers.

In reply to a question, Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervaiz Malik said inflation rate is decreasing every month due to effective measures taken by the government.

He said prices of major food items and essential goods had decreased as prices of wheat flour came down over 35 per cent, petrol 23.5pc, HSD 22.5pc, chilli powder 20pc, electricity charges decreased by 13.5pc, sugar 12.7pc and cooking oil prices slashed by 10.3pc as compared to the previous year.

Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Zeeshan Khanzada, Pervaiz Malik said the government was taking steps to control inflation.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2024