SC suspends parliamentary body’s recommendations | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

SC suspends parliamentary body’s recommendations

By Sohail Khan

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday suspended the decision of the Parliamentary Committee (PC), which denied one-year extension in service to two additional judges of the Sindh High Court, and restrained the respondents from issuing any notification in pursuance of the PC’s recommendations.

A four-member larger bench, comprising Justice Mehmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, was hearing petitions against the decision of the committee, which had rejected the proposal of the Judicial Commission for one year extension in the service to four additional judges of the Lahore High Court and two additional judges of the Sindh High Court.

Anwar Mansoor Khan, the counsel for two additional judges of the Sindh High Court, requested the court to suspend the decision of the Parliamentary Committee (PC), which denied one year extension to two additional judges of the Sindh High Court and restrained the respondents from issuing any notification in pursuance of the PC’s recommendations.

Additional Attorney General KK Agha contended that the Parliamentary Committee was not a rubber stamp, and it was not mandatory for it to accept all the proposals of the Judicial Commission.

He said the petitions were not filed under Article 184 of the Constitution, and no fundamental rights were affected, thus, the court should reject the petitions. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja observed that if the case had no public importance, then why the people had participated in the movement for the restoration of judges.

The counsel for the petitioners, Makhdoom Ali Khan, said the court should decide the power of the Parliamentary Committee and should set the criteria about the rejection of Judicial Commission’s proposals. He said he still was not provided with the reasons of the PC, on whose grounds the extension was rejected. KK Agha said the reasons could not be made public.

However, the court observed that there was nothing in the ‘reasons’ which could not be made public and directed KK Agha to provide a copy of the ‘reasons’ to the counsel for the petitioners.

The court directed the counsel for the petitioners to start arguments on merit from Tuesday (today).

Earlier, on Feb 17, the court had suspended the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee (PC), rejecting one-year extension proposed by the Judicial Commission in the service of four additional judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and restrained the respondents from issuing any notification in pursuance of the PC’s recommendations.

The petitions were filed by Munir Hussain Bhatti and Kamran Murtaza, advocates, as well as the Sindh High Court Bar Association. The PC on February 22, 2011 had rejected the Judicial Commission’s recommendations for extension in service to two Additional Judges of the Sindh High Court, Justice Tasneem Aslam and Justice Salman Hamid.

The LHC judges whose extension was rejected by the PC included Justice Muhammad Yawar Ali, Justice Syed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Mahmood Rashid Sheikh and Justice Muhammad Farrakh Irfan Khan.
Source: The News
Date:3/1/2011