Govt lays SC (Practice, Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance in Senate

ISLAMABAD: The federal government, Friday, laid in the Upper House of the Parliament the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance 2024 that was referred to the relevant Senate standing committee.

Law Minister Azam Tarar moved the Ordinance in the Senate session presided over by Deputy Chairman Syedaal Khan.

An ordinance, in the light of Article 89(1) of the Constitution of Pakistan, remains in effect for 120 days and can be extended only once for 120 days, if a resolution for its extension is passed by either Senate or National Assembly, and stands permanently lapsed after the passage of the extended period.

On 19 September, President Asif Zardari promulgated the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance 2024 which mainly provides that every cause, appeal or matter before the SC shall be heard and disposed of by a bench constituted by the committee comprising the chief justice of Pakistan, the next most senior judge of the SC and an SC judge nominated by the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP).

Soon after this Ordinance was promulgated, the recently retired CJP Qazi Faez Isa reconstituted the judges’ committee— removing Justice Munib Akhtar from the panel and including Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan in it.

But, the new CJP Justice Yahya Afridi, shortly after taking oath, brought Justice Akhtar back in the panel by removing Justice Khan.

Meanwhile, Finance State Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said, the Karachi Interbank Offered Rate (KIBOR) dropped to 13.5 per cent in the last six months from 24-25 per cent that was recorded six months back.

This rate will further reduce, he said,

The inflation rate, the state minister said, is decreasing every month due to effective measures of the government.

He was responding to a calling attention notice moved by Zeeshan Khan Zada from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regarding recent reduction in the interest rate by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), which, according to him, is “insufficient at a time when the government claims to have brought the inflation down to 9.6 per cent.”

In the question hour, Industries Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain told the House that restructuring of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) is under way and there is no plan to close the USC operations.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024