[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]ISLAMABAD: As the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the PTI’s petition challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to postpone Punjab Assembly elections, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has warned that the government will not accept a hasty ruling on such a sensitive and important issue.
The law minister stated on the floor of the National Assembly that the entire nation was awaiting the top court’s decision and that any hasty decision on such a sensitive issue would be rejected.
He also requested that President Arif Alvi sign the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, which seeks to limit the chief justice’s suo motu powers.
Tarar introduced the bill in parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, and it was passed by the Senate, or upper house, on Thursday. According to a copy of the bill, the new draught law, which has been sent to the president for approval, limits the chief justice’s authority to form panels, hear appeals, and assign cases to judges on his team.
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The government is currently at odds with the Supreme Court over the holding of snap elections in two provinces where PTI chief Imran Khan dissolved local governments earlier this year in an attempt to force early elections.
The government claims that holding snap elections first and then a general election this year is not economically feasible.
“Two assemblies have been sacrificed on the altar of Imran Khan’s ego,” Tarar said in the assembly, adding that the government has done everything possible to keep the institution sacred. In the same breath, he noted that the same institution had sentenced a dictator to nine years rather than three months.
His remarks came as the Supreme Court, irritated by the government’s declaration of “no-confidence” in the SC bench hearing the case, refused to hear the ruling parties’ lawyers’ arguments and reserved the verdict.
The minister said that the Attorney General of Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan asked for the formation of a six-member bench with judges who weren’t present on the bench before but regretted that the verdict has been reserved now.
He also said that the government had submitted a request to become a party in the case for the last six days, adding that It demanded transparency to be brought to the Supreme Court’s proceedings. “When representatives of political parties appeared in the court today, they expressed displeasure,” the minister said.
He claimed there were also misgivings within legal circles regarding the issue and added that despite expressing no confidence, the bench took matters forward. “Our request was to make a bench that is acceptable to all. The decision of four judges against three has come out.”
Tarar went on to say that the government’s lawyers said that their objections should be heard before the hearing and that the government is not being made a party despite continuous requests. “We were party earlier, but it is not known when we were refused to be one,” he said.
Tarar added that voices are also being raised within the institution, but they are being ignored.
“Voices of the institution’s judges are rising, but they are being suppressed. If the decision is made in a hurry, then history will write it on black pages. If such an important national issue is decided in haste, then it will be controversial,” Tarar said.
The minister mentioned that the chief justice asked political parties to resolve the issue on their own. “I would ask the chief justice to first fix your own house. First look at your own house and listen to the voices rising inside it.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
