News
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Judiciary comes under severe criticism in Lower House* PPP’s Noor Alam terms CJP biased against PPP
* PML-N’s Saad Rafique says government can’t save prime minister through legislation
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The role of judiciary came under sharp criticism in the Lower House of parliament on Tuesday when lawmakers’ outburst didn’t even spare the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), who was dubbed “biased” against the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
The criticism mainly came from the PPP and its coalition partners, however, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ayaz Amir expressed reservations over “the game played under the disguise of rule of law, despite the ruling of the chair that conduct of a judge can’t be discussed under Article 68 of the constitution”.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), an ally of the PPP government, though avoided criticising the judiciary; however it introduced a bill – Curative Review by the Supreme Court – envisaging provision of review against the Supreme Court’s decisions.
On a point of order, PPP’s Noor Alam Khan questioned the activism of judiciary only against his party, saying why cases of the PML-N, particulary attack on judiciary, were not taken up by the court. “Why are you biased?” Alam asked the chief justice, and regretted that he had called parliament “a redundant institution” in a statement few days back. He further asked the chief justice why he had been challenging the authority of parliament in law making.
On audit of the budget of the Supreme Court by Public Accounts Committee, PPP lawmaker said that if PAC could audit accounts of all the institutions, why the budget of the Supreme Court could not be brought under scrutiny.
Awami National Party (ANP) MNA Bushra Gohar said that “justice is not being served to the public and the country is practically running on suo motu notices”.
She opposed the 21st constitutional amendment proposing increase in the pension of judges and said while deciding on increasing the judges’ pension, their performance should also be reviewed.
She also endorsed the point that there should be no holy cow regarding utilisation of public money.
PPP’s Jamshed Dasti complained that he was given unfair treatment by the courts in the fake degrees case.
Dasti questioned why the apex court had not taken a suo motu notice when several patients in Punjab lost their lives due to a strike by young doctors.
Khawaja Saad Rafique of the PML-N noted that through the contempt of court bill, the executive was going for an open confrontation with the judiciary, adding that the government could not save the prime minister through legislation.
Earlier, the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill 2012, which has been lingering on for three years, was again put on hold until the next session to evolve consensus on the bill.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk