Tag: Suo motu

  • Justice Faiz Isa questions disposal of his order to stop all suo motu proceedings

    Justice Faiz Isa questions disposal of his order to stop all suo motu proceedings

    Supreme Court (SC) Justice Qazi Faiz Isa has raised multiple questions over the verdict of a six-member larger bench of the Supreme Court which deposed his order that all suo motu proceedings should be stopped.

    In a nine-page note issued on Saturday, Justice Isa maintained that as the gathering in a court of six distinguished judges was not permissible under the Constitution or under any law, “the Supreme Court’s order dated 29 March 2023 passed in Case No 4 could not have been set aside by the 4 April Note”.

    Justice Isa noted that the Constitution did not confer jurisdiction on a bench or on judges of the SC (no matter how many in number) to sit in an appeal over an order of the top court.

    The judge further pointed out that Ishrat Ali, a federal government employee, was sent on deputation to the SC to work as its registrar.

    He maintained that Ishrat Ali was “withdrawn” by the federal government, however, he refused to abide by the order.

    It is pertinent to mention here that Justice Faiz had asked the registrar to resign for issuing a circular, discarding his judicial order related to suo motu proceedings.

    Earlier, a six-member bench of the Supreme Court was formed in unusual haste to deliberate on Justice Faez Isa’s order freezing all the suo motu notices. The bench closed the case after a hearing that lasted a total of five minutes.

  • ‘Do not create controversies’: Khawaja Asif’s lashes out at judiciary on NA floor

    ‘Do not create controversies’: Khawaja Asif’s lashes out at judiciary on NA floor

    Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday demanded that the Supreme Court (SC) form a full court bench to hear the case pertaining to provincial elections and review past cases, starting with the Panama case in which former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified for life.

    In a fiery speech on the floor of the National Assembly (NA), Khawaja questioned why some judges were not criticised and raised concerns about judges intervening in parliament’s jurisdiction.

    The minister said he doesn’t want to cross the line in criticism and added that the election date suo motu case should be heard by the full court.

    “It has complained that parliamentarians criticise judges by naming them. I want to ask why some judges are not criticised?”

    Asif said that when judges intervene in the parliament’s jurisdiction, politicians will raise questions about it.

    “Why former justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Khosa are criticised and not Justice Nasir ul Mulk and Tassaduq Hussain Jillani’s name should be raised as well?” he asked.

    Taking a jibe at PTI’s Jail Bharo Tehreek, Khawaja said Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s son came to bail his father out one day after his arrest. 

    “No one came for us when we were arrested for several days. We were sent to 90 days remand. PM and his daughter served jail sentences for numerous days. No one got bail for this. On the other side, they [PTI] get instant bail,” said the minister. 

    “They carry out photo sessions in front of a police van and then leave for home. Jail Bharo Tehreek has flopped. Now it should be doob maro film (Drown in Shame),” said Asif.

    “Imran does not come out of his home, gets pre-arrest bail and then directs his party workers to offer their arrests. Imran’s medical record has not been done yet as he went to his own hospital,” said Asif. He added that the PTI chief considers the people of Pakistan fools. 

    Khawaja questioned how the treatment meted out to Nawaz Sharif justified.

    “Rewriting the Constitution is not the judiciary’s job. This is the outcome of the way Article 63 was rewritten. The way Nawaz Sharif’s government was removed was unfair.”

    Asif urged the judiciary to “prove its gracefulness”. 

    “I would say, correct the mistakes of the past which you have made so that the structure of the state could rely upon a strong foundation that no one can ever dare to challenge it. Do not generate controversies. Do not rewrite Article 63. If such would continue to happen God forbid, an unfortunate incident could take place,” warned Asif.

  • Suo motu notice if FIR of attack on Imran not registered in 24 hours, warns SC

    Suo motu notice if FIR of attack on Imran not registered in 24 hours, warns SC

    The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday directed Faisal Shahkar, Inspector General (IG) of Punjab Police, to register a first information report (FIR) of the gun attack on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan within 24 hours.

    A five-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Mazahar Akbar Naqvi, heard the plea.

    During the hearing, CJP Bandial warned that the court will take suo motu notice if the FIR of the attack was not registered within 24 hours.

    He also asked the IG, who joined the hearing from the SC’s Lahore registry via video link, why the FIR had not been registered as yet.

    “Tell us when the FIR will be registered,” he asked, adding that there should be a concrete reason for not registering the FIR. CJP Bandial observed that it had been 90 hours since the attack. “How will an investigation be initiated without it? And without an FIR, even evidence can be altered,” he added.

    On Sunday, Khan again questioned the delay in the registration of the FIR. He said the case should be registered against the prime minister, interior minister, and a senior intelligence official for “hatching a conspiracy to kill him”.

    He added that despite the passage of three days, the case was not registered as the Punjab police were “rel­u­c­tant to register the FIR”. He expressed surprise that the police were adamant abo­ut not including the name of the military officer in the FIR but ready to nominate the prime minister and the interior minister in the case.

    “Policemen requested that they be transferred from the post…[and] some other officer may register the FIR nominating suspects mentioned by me,” he claimed.