Tag: shehbaz sharif cabinet

Pakistan’s National Assembly Adopts Bill to Curtail Powers of Chief Justice

The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, presented by federal minister for law and justice Azam Nazeer Tarar, was passed hours after the Standing Committee on Law and Justice approved the cabinet’s proposed amendments.

New Delhi: Pakistan’s National Assembly on Wednesday, March 29, adopted a bill aimed at curtailing the discretionary powers of the chief justice, a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that “history would not forgive us” if parliament did not enact laws to curtail the powers of the country’s top judge.

The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, presented by federal minister for law and justice Azam Nazeer Tarar, was passed hours after the Standing Committee on Law and Justice approved the cabinet’s proposed amendments, Dawn reported.

These developments occurred in light of two Supreme Court judges questioning the suo motu powers of the country’s top judge.

The bill will now be presented in the Senate on Thursday, March 30 (tomorrow), The News International reported.

Sharif addressed the joint session of parliament earlier on the dissenting judgment by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail of the apex court. They had vehemently spoken against the unlimited authority of the chief justice to take suo motu (on its own) action on any issue and constitute benches of choice to hear different cases.

Their judgment focused on the case of suo motu notice taken by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on February 22 about elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. The suo motu power is based on the original jurisdiction of the court under Article 184 of Pakistan’s Constitution. However, its usage over the years has created an impression of partiality on the Chief Justices’ part.

Additionally, Justices Shah and Mandokhail rejected the 3-2 judgment in the suo motu case, saying that it was a 4-3 judgment to reject the maintainability of the case. They also scorned the Chief Justice’s power to form a bench for important cases.

According to Tarar, the bill ensures that “every cause, appeal or matter before the Supreme Court shall be heard and disposed of by a bench constituted by the Committee comprising the Chief Justice of Pakistan and two senior-most judges, in order of seniority”. The decisions of such a committee shall be by the majority.

On suo motu powers, the draft states that any matter invoking exercise of original jurisdiction under Article 184 (3) shall be first placed before the committee of three senior-most judges. 

The legislation also allows appeals. “An appeal shall lie within thirty days from a final order of a bench of the Supreme Court who exercised jurisdiction under clause (3) of Article 184 of the Constitution to a larger bench of the Supreme Court and such appeal shall, for hearing, be fixed within a period not exceeding fourteen days,” according to the proposed bill.

All of this is taking shape as the top court is hearing the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan to postpone the provincial election until October 8, which exceeds the 90 days deadline by the constitution to hold elections after the dissolution of an assembly.

Thus, some have argued that the coalition government under Prime Minister Sharif, which supports the ECP’s decision to delay the election in the two provinces until October 8, seems to be using parliament to curtail the powers of the Chief Justice.

Post-presentation, members demanded that the bill be sent to a committee to discuss it and report back before voting. As the law minister did not oppose the demand, the speaker announced sending the bill to a committee, anticipating a report soon. The proceedings were prorogued until Wednesday. 

This story, which was published on March 29 at 10:45 am, has been republished on the same date at 6:58 pm with an update on Pakistan’s National Assembly adopting a bill to curtail powers of the Chief Justice.

With Hina Rabbani Khar’s Return as Pak Junior FM, What Can India Expect?

During her previous term, Khar emphasised a regional approach to the country’s foreign policy. Recently, she criticised the US for its alleged preference for military regimes in Istanbul.

New Delhi: For the second time, Hina Rabbani Khar, who got a celebrity treatment during her first official visit to India, will take helm as Pakistan’s junior foreign minister in the new 37-member cabinet unveiled by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday.

Khar was the youngest and first woman minister during her tenure as Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs between February 2011 and March 2013. She has once again been appointed to the same position.

After taking the oath of office, Khar on Tuesday stressed the need for employing “sincere efforts” to address the challenges on the diplomatic front, according to the Express Tribune. She expressed these views while chairing her first high-level meeting.

In Pakistan, foreign policy, especially with US and India, is not entirely in the hand of civilian politicians but rather controlled from Rawalpindi. There have been recent remarks by Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa, which indicated that the military wanted to steer Pakistan away from Imran Khan’s populist foreign policy towards closer ties with the US and work toward normalisation of relations with India.

However, it may not be easy for Islamabad to make dramatic foreign policy overtures, with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf holding large rallies for snap general elections. Even if the election is held on schedule it gives the Sharif government only about 16 months  – perhaps not enough space to concentrate on foreign relations when the country is going through severe economic stress.

In the run-up to the cabinet formation, there had been a widespread belief that Pakistan Peoples’ Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was going to be the foreign minister. But, his absence is due to Zardari’s involvement in resolving crucial political issues with partners, prominent Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir told Karan Thapar in an interview for The Wire. Mir asserted that Zardari is likely to be sworn in as foreign minister within the next 14-20 days.

Even if Zardari joins as the foreign minister, he is likely to be guided by the more-experienced Khar, at least in the initial stages. So which path will Khar, Zardari and Sharif take? An examination of her previous two-year tenure and statements she has made since may prove useful.

The Guardian, in a 2011 profile, described Khar as the “scion of a wealthy landowning family from southern Punjab”. She joined politics at just 25, after she graduated from a university in the US. During her first election, Khar’s “landlord father Noor addressed rallies and glad-handed voters; Hina stayed largely at home, with not even her photo appearing on the posters”, the newspaper reported.

She was one of the few ministers who transitioned from the military government of General Pervez Musharraf to the civilian government. She joined the Pakistan People’s Party just before the 2008 general election in the country.

Soon after her appointment as the junior foreign minister, Khar travelled to India. Talks between the two countries were suspended after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks but were resumed around the time of her appointment. During her visit, trade and Kashmir were discussed. She also held talks with the separatist Kashmir group, the Hurriyat Conference, which the BJP – then the main opposition party – criticised.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani speak to the press after the bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 17th SAARC Summit, in the Maldives on November 10, 2011. Indian external affairs minister S.M. Krishna and Pakistan junior foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar are also seen. Photo: PMO India, Public Domain

In 2015, reflecting on her term, Khar told Al Jazeera that the Asif Ali Zardari government pivoted to regional interests. “We didn’t need to have a great relationship with London, or with Washington DC, but we needed a great relationship with Kabul and Delhi,” she said. She also praised the Zardari government for decoupling the issues of trade and Kashmir.

In the same interview, Khar criticised the US government’s foreign policy on Pakistan, saying the country preferred dealing with military regimes, which “resulted in the pre-eminence of military influence in Pakistan”. “The US government has had a long history of immense fascination with the military of Pakistan,” she said.

In 2019, she criticised Pakistan for choosing to be a “client state instead of becoming [a] strategic partner” of any country. She reiterated that Pakistan should prioritise ties with regional countries like Afghanistan, India, Iran and China and not the US. “The US does not deserve that much importance as is given in Pakistan because our economy is not dependent on US aid, as is widely believed,” Khar said.

In 2016, she told the Pakistani channel Geo News that Pakistan cannot “conquer Kashmir through war” and progress on the dispute hinges on an “environment of mutual trust with India”.

“I believe that Pakistan cannot conquer Kashmir through war and if we cannot do that, the option we are left with is dialogue, and dialogue can only proceed with a partner with which we have normal relations and a certain level of mutual trust,” she said.

Watch: ‘Bilawal Bhutto Will Be Sworn in as Pak Foreign Minister Within 14-20 Days’

Khar has also criticised countries for using non-state actors to deal with conflicts, saying this would only create more conflict. She was speaking in 2015 in the context of the civil war in Syria. Khar said “all the powerful countries of the world involved [in Syria] have different goals which they are trying to achieve through non-state actors. This would produce drastic results.”

She also admitted that Pakistan was involved in inculcating “extremist thought” to certain terror groups. “I don’t see world getting orderly in the near future. The cause of the disorder is not the contest between the powers, it’s because we employ the tools that create disorder. The al-Qaeda, Taliban and militant Islamic State groups were created by the extremist thought inculcated in them by the states, including the US and Pakistan,” she said at a Lahore event in 2015/