ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), Thursday, reserved its verdict over maintainability of a petition filed against the decision of the Pakistan Information Commission, which has ordered complete disclosure of the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s entire workforce.

A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition moved by the Supreme Court Registrar Jawad Paul, through Additional Attorney General Amir Rehman against the order of the Pakistan Information Commission (PIC).

During the hearing, the Attorney General for Pakistan, Khalid Jawed, appeared before the court. The petitioner stated that as a citizen of Pakistan he needed the information of the SC’s employees.

In response to a query, the AGP said that the Ministry of Law and Justice was concerned ministry, which used to issue notifications about the apex court. He added that the Law Ministry had filed this petition after taking approval from the SC Registrar.

The IHC bench asked whether the full bench of the SC had given approval for the said case.

To this, the AGP replied that he could not ask it from the registrar.

The IHC bench remarked that the Senate and the National Assembly were also constitutional institutions and their information also could not be made public. However, the AGP said that there was no such thing about Parliament in law.

Khalid Jawed further said that the information commission had given orders for the provision of information and the SC registrar had challenged it before the IHC. The IHC bench remarked that the citizen had demanded information about the registrar office instead of the SC judges and there was a difference between both. The AGP said that the applicant had sought information about the SC.

Later, the bench reserved its decision regarding maintainability of the petition.

It was July 12 when the PIC allowed an application filed by a citizen, Mukhtar Ahmed, seeking information about sanctioned strength of the SC staff from BS-1 to BS-22, vacant positions, daily wagers, posts created after January 1, 2017, persons with disabilities, and transgender working in the apex court.

Later, SC Registrar filed a review petition against the order of the PIC, which has been dismissed on November 17.

Subsequently, the apex court’s registrar through the petition filed before the IHC requesting that the information commission’s direction may be declared illegal.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021