The National Assembly has passed the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 under which the powers of taking suo moto action by the office of the Chief Justice has been curtailed.
The aim of the bill is to take away the authority from Chief Justice Supreme Court to take suo moto action in individual capacity. The government had presented the bill in emergency when the Supreme Court is hearing the case regarding delay of elections by the Elections Commission of Pakistan in Punjab province.
The bill was tabled by the Federal Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Azam Nazeer Tarar on behalf of the government. Earlier the bill was presented in the cabinet, which after approval it handed over to the standing committee. The standing committee also passed the bill and presented it in the National Assembly within the short period of less than one day.
The PDM led government had shown much urgency that the entire process took less than 24 hours because it wanted to prevent the Supreme Court from taking action against the Election Commission’s order to delay the elections from April to October this year.
Now after the passing of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 , it would move to the Senate and if it is passed by the upper house of the Parliament then it would go to the President of Pakistan , if he would sign the bill then it would become the law .
But if President would retain the bill for some period, and in the meantime the court would give its verdict against the postponement of elections in Punjab then a critical situation could be ascended in which could be created a position of conflict between two important pillars of the state i.e. parliament and judiciary.
Though Parliament is supreme and legislation is its right and no other institution of the state can stop it from making laws but the haste indicated by the government creates doubts in the minds of the people that there is something specious going on.
Here lies a point whether the Supreme Court can give a decision against the election delay in Punjab after the passage of the bill from the National Assembly.
The curtailing of powers of the Chief Justice to take suo moto action would impact a lot in the slow moving judicial system. The people of the country are already deprived of justice and if this bill becomes law , then there would be no one who would dispense justice to the common man.
The passage of the bill from the lower house of the Parliament expressed the malicious intentions of the government to put the judges of the apex court under pressure. This bill would also impact on the judicial system, which already failed to provide justice to the people in a befitting manner, and where the thousands of the cases are laying pending in the courts as the litigants had been waiting years after years for justice.
The passage of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 would depress the judiciary as restrain the powers of Chief Justice from taking suo moto action would create injustice in the society. It looks like the government is misusing the authority of the parliament.