LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Monday called for massive judicial reforms in the country that may include revisiting the procedure for appointment of judges, setting up of a Constitution Court, regulating the use of suo motu powers, provision of speedy and inexpensive justice, legislation to prevent misuse of blasphemy laws.
In his address to the Lahore High Court Bar Association, the PPP chief called for setting up of a Constitution Court with equal representation of all federating unites to decide constitutional matters. “It is the unfinished agenda of Charter of Democracy signed in May 2006 between my mother Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on behalf of their parties,” he said. Bilawal urged the legal community to give a thought to whether the independence of judiciary is guaranteed by vesting the powers to appoint judges by the judges alone or is it best served when the power to appoint judges is diffused between the president, prime minister, parliament and the bar council.
He said that during 2010-13, the Judicial Commission (JC) made 126 nominations for appointment of judges in the Supreme Court and the five high courts of the country. The parliamentary committee (PC) disagreed with only eight appointments and that two were overturned by the court. He said the then president Asif Zardari filed a constitutional reference seeking opinion on the roles of the JC, the PC and the president in the appointment of judges and the court held that the role of the PC and the president was no more than mere post offices.
Bilawal said that the chief justice alone initiating nominations, the JC making its own rules and conducting business in secrecy while neither president nor prime minister or elected representatives had any role in the judges’ appointments. He said the judges alone selecting new judges was not conducive for the promotion of a bench having judges of divergent worldviews on issues in jurisprudence. It is not the question of integrity or competence of judges but an issue of diversity of judicial minds that must adorn the bench, he said. He called for revisiting the procedure for the appointment of judges.
About the role of parliament, Bilawal said that the constitution has clearly laid down the scheme of powers in which lawmaking is the responsibility of parliament; judiciary interprets the laws and the executive implements the laws.
Talking about superior courts' authority, he said that it was surprising when it was said that chief justice be consulted in the process of selection of NAB chairman or in the appointment of chairman and members of the federal service tribunal even when the laws made by the elected representatives of the people do not provide for this.
About the use of suo motu powers, the PPP chairman said it would be worthwhile to make a comparative study of how many suo motu notices were taken in PPP government and how many after the PPP was no longer in the power.
He said that the International Commission of Jurists, which visited Pakistan in 2011, in its report had said that the use of suo motu led to corrosion of rule of law and blurring of the constitutional separation of powers.
Bilawal said that the PPP was deeply concerned on the growing misuse of blasphemy laws for silencing dissent and for oppressing minorities and welcomed the recent Supreme Court verdict and its call for looking into this issue. He expressed the hope that parliament would take note of the Supreme Court verdict and make appropriate legislation to prevent misuse of the blasphemy laws.
Stressing upon the need for access to speedy and inexpensive justice, he called for a poor-friendly judicial system. He said that in our system of courts, the broadest interface of the citizens with the law occurs in the subordinate courts. He said that scant or no attention is paid to the improvement of the process of the civil courts and magisterial forums where these mills grind slow and inflict maximum pain. He said that it would be the PPP mission to introduce reform, transparency, efficiency, expedition and integrity to the legal processes in the subordinate courts.
Bilawal said that the corruption was a serious issue and needed to be tackled, but cautioned against using it as a brush to paint black only one section of society. He said that every citizen must challenge the double standards in pursuing corruption cases as no one could win the fight against corruption unless we do away with the sacred cows syndrome.
Bilawal said it was wrong to have one set of laws for one section of society and another for the other section of the society. He said that the fight against corruption must be across the board and above the board.
He said that those who upheld the constitutional deviations, validated military takeover and dismantled the democratic structures have also to answer many questions about honesty. He asked whether we should not pursue those who have subverted the constitution or validated constitutional subversion through PCOs and court verdicts.
DAILY TIMES.
YEMI.
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