CJP questions display of ‘clarification’ on website sans issuance of cause list

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa questions the release of eight judges’ clarification on the Supreme Court website without the issuance of a cause list.

Deputy Registrar Supreme Court on September 16 wrote a note to SC Registrar regarding uploading of clarification order on the apex court website on September 14, mentioning he did not receive the order at 8 p.m. that day.

“I bring it to your kind notice that news is floating on the media that the Supreme Court has issued clarification of order dated 12-07-2024 passed in C.A. No. 333/2024 (Election – National Assembly/Reserved Seats)”, said the note. “However, neither the cause list was issued, nor notices were issued to the parties by the office and the order has still not been received in the office till 08:00 p.m. and was uploaded on the website,” it added.

The chief justice asked nine questions from the SC Registrar: 1) when were the said applications filed? 2) Why were the said applications not fixed before the Committee constituted under Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023? 3) How were the said applications fixed for hearing and how was this done without issuance of cause list disclosing their fixation? 4) Did the office issue notices to the parties and to the Attorney General for Pakistan? 5) In which courtroom/ chamber were the applications heard, and by whom? 6) Why was a cause list not issued for announcement of the said order? 7) Why was the said order not fixed for announcement? 8) Without first depositing the original file and the said order in the Supreme Court’s office how was the said order uploaded on the website? 9) Who directed the uploading of the said order on the Supreme Court’s website?

The eight-judge clarification censured the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over confusing its July 12 order on reserved seats, and warned of consequences if not implemented forthwith.

The eight judges on July 12, 24 through short order declared that the persons, who contested general elections on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tickets were and are of that political party and thus members of the parliamentary party of PTI in the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies, for all constitutional and legal purposes.

The clarification said; “The attempt by the Commission to confuse and cloud what is otherwise absolutely clear as a matter of the Constitution and the law must therefore be strongly deprecated. The list required to be issued by the Commission in terms of paragraph 8 (read with paragraph 10) of the Short Order is nothing more than a ministerial act, for the information and convenience of all concerned, and has no substantive effect.”

It warned; “The continued failure of, and refusal by, the Commission to perform this legally binding obligation may, have consequences. This obligation must be discharged forthwith.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024