Government finds new way to confront Supreme Court, orders audit
By: Usman Manzoor
ISLAMABAD: In order to keep the public away from huge corruption stories, the bad governance, deteriorating law and order situation in the country, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government, simply a few months ahead of the general election, is trying to bring the Supreme Court and parliament at loggerheads by conducting the audit of the SC funds, which have been given full cover under the Constitution.
At a time when the Supreme Court is hearing mega corruption scandals of the incumbent government involving tens of billions of rupees and recoveries are being made on the orders of the court, the government has found an easy way of undermining the independence of the judiciary by summoning the registrar of the apex court before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The government, otherwise, has been playing hide and seek with the orders of the apex court during the past years and even sacrificed one of its prime ministers for not obeying the order of the court.
The PAC chairman and PPP leader Nadeem Afzal Chan has clearly stated that the committee has called the Supreme Court registrar under its constitutional role and it should not be misinterpreted as a confrontation between the judiciary and parliament, despite knowing about the presence of a 17-judge order of 2006 in which it was declared that the SC falls out of the loop of National Assembly’s power of oversight as its funds have been covered in article 81(a) and (b) of the constitution.
Even, reportedly, the Supreme Court has told the PAC that the registrar will not appear before the PAC because it may undermine the independence of judiciary. Article 81 of the constitution says, “Expenditure charged upon Federal Consolidated Fund: The following expenditure shall be expenditure charged upon the Federal Consolidated Fund:-
(a) The remuneration payable to the president and other expenditure relating to his office, and the remuneration payable to-
(i) The judges of the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court; (ii) the chief election commissioner; (iii) the chairman and the deputy chairman; (iv) the speaker and the deputy speaker of the National Assembly; (v) the auditor-general;
(b) The administrative expenses, including the remuneration payable to officers and servants of the Supreme Court, the Islamabad High Court, the department of the auditor-general, the office of the chief election commissioner and of the Election Commission and the secretariats of the Senate and the National Assembly.”
Justice (R) Tariq Mehmood, a senior and respected legal expert who was also called by the PAC for his expert opinion over the summoning of SC registrar, while talking to this correspondent said if the SC would not allow audit of its accounts then the president, National Assembly, Senate, Election Commission and auditor general will also run away from the audit because they have also been covered in article 81 of the constitution i.e. Federal Consolidated Fund.
He said the Chief Justice of Pakistan has the powers to divert funds of one head to the other head and there was no harm in the audit of SC accounts.
He mentioned that in 2006, 17 judges of the apex court had issued an executive order that the audit of SC accounts tantamount to undermining the independence of judiciary but this order had no judicial worth because it was issued as an executive order.
Azhar Siddique Advocate, on the other hand, said that the SC has been covered in article 81 primarily to ensure its independence.
He said same is the case with the Election Commission, auditor general, National Assembly and Senate, because otherwise the government would make ECP or auditor general to toe its line if financial independence is not allowed.
He said that PAC cannot summon the SC registrar because funds allocated from the Federal Consolidated Fund do not come under the purview of PAC.
He mentioned that PAC was doing this just to stab the independence of judiciary for the reasons best known to the legislators sitting in it.
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