• November 3, 2023
• General News
• Abid Hussain

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan faces another test on transparency related to its accounts.
A citizen who sought information about the apex court’s staff has asked, nay, reminded the SC to act on
its application through which he requested the audit reports of five years.
Mukhtar Ahmed Ali has invoked Article 19-A of the Constitution, about which the SC earlier held that it
could be used to obtain information from the apex court. The applicant has written to the SC, “My

above-referred request for information may kindly be reconsidered and decided in the light of the
recent judgment of the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan on civil petition No. 3532/2023.”
The referred request was made in November 2021, asking three questions. The applicant had sought the
rules and regulations governing the audit of the SC’s accounts and the audit reports for the last five
years (2015-20) ending at the time of the application filing. In case the audit was conducted by private
firms (instead of the Auditor General of Pakistan), details of fees and compensation charges paid to the
audit firms were also requested. Providing this information would be a test case for the SC, which had
previously declined to share even with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), declaring this move an
attempt to undermine the independence of the judiciary. The first attempt was made by Chaudhry Nisar
Ali in 2010 when he was chairman of PAC. Another effort was carried out this year by chairman PAC
Noor Alam Khan (before the dissolution of the National Assembly). Neither of them succeeded, though
their acts triggered debate on this issue.
When Mukhtar filed a request in 2021, the registrar’s office responded negatively. The applicant was
conveyed that since the information was sought under the Right of Access to Information Act (2017), it
applied to the public bodies. Still, the apex court didn’t fall within the definition's ambit. “Although the
definition of Public Body provided in the Act, 2017 is very exhaustive, the legislature in its wisdom did
not include this Court within the folds of said definition and excluded it from the purview of the Act,
2017,” reads the reply of the deputy registrar sent in January last year.
Now, when the apex court, while deciding another appeal of the same applicant, has upheld the
position taken by the registrar, it has declared that the SC can be approached by invoking Article 19-A of
the Constitution but not through the Right of Access to Information Act (2017). Taking a cue from that,
Mukhtar has requested that the court request of 2021 regarding audit reports be treated under article
19-A. In addition, he has asked the court to deal with information under this article whether the
requester references that or not. Besides, he has further demanded an officer of requisite competence
be designated to receive and decide information requests and that urgent steps be taken to proactively
disclose maximum information about the administrative matters of the court through its web portal. He
has further asked that information disclosed to individual citizens may also be posted on the web portal.
“An effective mechanism for proactive disclosure of maximum information will not only ensure easy
access of citizens to information but will also reduce the workload of relevant officers in deciding
individual requests that they may receive in increasing numbers in future,” Mukhtar has written to the
registrar.

Source: The News