• Law minister to table SC ordinance in lower house today
• Sources say speaker may put off travel to Commonwealth event until passage of key legislation

ISLAMABAD: The Nati­­o­nal Assembly, which meets again today (Monday), is expected to pass three important bills in its current session, including two laws related to the Supreme Court and another regarding preventive detention of terror suspects for up to three months.

Much-touted amendments to the Supreme Court (Practice and Pro­cedure) Act is one of the three bills expected to be passed by the lower house of parliament in its current session.

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, who was scheduled to attend 67th Common­wealth Parliamentary Conference being held in Australia from Nov 3 to 8, has been asked to stay in the country until the passage of the bills, a source told Dawn on Sunday.

One of the main aspects of the SC Practice and Procedure Amendment Bill — related to the procedure of formation of benches — is said to be a continuation of the recently passed 26th constitutional amendment that “clipped powers” of the judiciary.

The new bill is expected to give complete authority to the incumbent Chief Justice Yahya Khan Afridi to pick any judge as member of the bench.

Another bill is related to the strength of judges in the apex court.

The third bill, concerning terrorism, will empower the army and civil armed forces to arrest and detain any person, who is suspected of being involved in terrorism, for up to three months.

When contacted, some MNAs were confident that the three important bills would be passed with a simple majority during the current session of the assembly.

Strangely, the opposition had not raised any objection when the bills related to terrorism was tabled in the lower house of parliament on Friday. It is now expected that they may register their protest in the house at the time of passage of these bills.

Monday’s agenda

According to the agenda of the NA for Monday, an ordinance regarding Supreme Court (Practice & Procedure) Bill will be tabled in the house. The ordinance already landed in the Senate on Friday.

The controversial ordinance, promulgated by President Asif Ali Zardari in September, had given a dominant role to the chief justice of Pakistan in the formation of benches.

The ordinance changes the composition of the committee that forms benches and fixes cases under the SC (Practice & Procedure) Act, 2023. While the three-member committee originally comprised the chief justice and two senior most judges of the court, it now comprises CJP, the next most senior judge, and a judge picked by the CJP.

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.

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

A number of matters featuring on the orders of the day relate to Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, who is named as being the minister who will lay the ordinance in the lower house.

A calling attention notice, moved by Sehar Kamran, invites Mr Tarar’s attention to Pakistan’s plummeting ranking in the Rule of Law index.

As per previous practice, other pieces of legislation not on the agenda can also be moved by including them on a supplementary agenda, which could be issued anytime today (Monday).

Number of SC judges

Amidst opposition from the PTI and JUI-F, a Senate panel on Friday had agreed to increase the number of SC judges from 17 to 25.

The bill, moved by Senator Abdul Qadir, was thoroughly discussed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice held with Farooq H. Naek in the chair. The bill introduced in the house had proposed to increase the number of judges from 17 to 20.

In another significant move, the government on Friday quietly introduced a crucial bill in the NA seeking to grant military and civil armed forces the authority to keep individuals facing terrorism charges in ‘preventive detention’ for up to three months.

Deputy Speaker Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah referred the bill, which proposes amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997, to the relevant committee for consideration immediately after Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar tabled it in the closing moments of a thinly-attended session, without explaining its salient features.

The bill also includes provisions for establishing JITs composed of members from various law enforcement and intelligence agencies to conduct inquiries.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2024