Senate body stresses need to increase number of IHC judges

ISLAMABAD: The Senate's Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday stressed the need of increasing number of judges in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to overcome the backlog of cases.

The committee, which met here under the chairmanship of Senator Javed Abbasi, discussed ‘The Islamabad High Court (Amendment) Bill, 2019 introduced by Federal Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem for increasing the number of IHC judges from seven to 10.

Senator Farooq Naek said first the vacant posts of judges should be filled before increasing their number.

Committee chairman Javed Abbasi remarked that the criteria as to who should be appointed as an IHC judge should also be decided.

The Islamabad High Court Bar Council and Islamabad High Court Bar Association supported the bill, calling to increase the number of judges to 11, besides making it mandatory that the judges should be residents of Islamabad.

The committee members supported the bill but deferred its approval to next meeting.

The minister informed the committee that the government would bring an amendment in the Islamabad High Court Act regarding bar on appointment of judges from areas other than Islamabad.

The committee asked the ministry to initiate the process for amendment in the High Court Act and present the same in its next meeting.

The meeting also discussed ‘The Ratification of Foreign Agreements by Parliament Bill, 2018 moved by Senator Mian Raza Rabbani.

The law minister opposed the bill calling it against the principle of trichotomy of powers as provided by the constitutional scheme.

He said Article 173(3) of the Constitution permitted the executive authority to enter into any contract or agreement.

The minister said there were a number of cases in which the Supreme Court had interpreted certain laws as violative of the concept of separation of powers and striken down them.

He said bringing contracts to parliament would limit the freedom of such contracts. It would an unnecessary clog on the powers of the executive.

Farooq H Naek said the parliament could make laws about how to implement the foreign agreements but could not ratify the agreements.

He called for making the required amendments in the bill.

Senator Anwar ul Haq Kakar agreed to the point of view of the government while Senator Abdul Rehman Malik supported the bill.

Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said in principle the bill was in good intention and the people through the Parliament needed to know what contracts the government was entering into.

Senator Sherry Rehman supported the bill. Senator Musadik Malik said that in a parliamentary democracy there was always an overlap of the powers of executive and legislature.

The committee also discussed ‘The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018’ (fourth schedule) moved by Senator Syed Sabir Shah regarding uniform printing of Holy Quran in the whole country.

The mover emphasized on the need of using better quality paper to reduce the damage of paper after long use of the Holy Quran.

The committee members upported the essence and intent of the bill but observed that printing had always been a subsidiary subject and taking it away from provinces and having a central authority responsible for printing might not be a good idea.

The committee also heard Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology, ministry of religious affairs and provincial auqaf departments who told the meeting that the all provinces had passed their respective laws to ensure standard quality error free printing of Holy Quran.

The committee decided to take samples on the grammage of paper in the next meeting and the mover shall withdraw the bill on condition of satisfaction.

Regarding ‘The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018’ (Amendment of Article 260) moved by Senator Naseebullah Bazai regarding removing 2 year ban of contesting elections on President and Governors was also discussed and the Committee decided to hear the provincial governments on the issue before taking any decision.