News
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
SC terms election on reserved seats flawed
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday termed the election of women and minorities on reserved seats under the proportional representation system flawed and observed that it could not be declared as true representation of the people.
The 17-member full court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing identical petitions against certain clauses of the 18th Amendment with particular reference to the formation of a judicial commission for appointment of judges to the superior court.
During the hearing, the judges pointed out that under the proportional representation system, the reserved seats were distributed at specific homes and the poor and workingwomen were kept away.
Senior lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri said the SC had no right to review the constitutional provision, but at the same time it had to develop the concept that judges were the ‘men of wisdom’. “I am not a party to the case, but I am appearing before the court as one of the founding fathers of the 1973 constitution and I opened the debate on behalf of the combined opposition party in the assembly,” he told the court.
Commenting on Kasuri’s contentions, Justice Javed Iqbal said the SC was not the social reformer and that parliament was the ‘man of wisdom’. Kasuri said there was a plethora of amendments which the incumbent NA passed in 10 minutes, saying the Constitutional Reforms Committee (CRC) report was just a working paper and it should have been thoroughly discussed in the House.
Before the court’s routine half-hour interval, the CJP directed Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to pass on all the questions raised during the 18th Amendment proceedings to CRC Chairman Raza Rabbani and ask him when he would like to appear before the court for assistance. After the interval, Haq told the court that Raza Rabbani was willing to appear before the court after the Eid holidays.
Kasuri said the law ought to be the domain of the judiciary, adding that Article 2A of the constitution was the ground norm of the constitution.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk