PTI, govt differ on law to form judicial commission

ISLAMABAD: The government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have yet to agree on the enactment of a new law to form a judicial commission as per the desire of Imran Khan to probe the rigging allegations in the 2013 election.
PTI’s Senior Vice President Hamid Khan, Advocate, told The News that the PTI and the government had not yet agreed on making a special law to make a powerful judicial commission with powers to issue binding directions and decisions. “We are talking to the government about the new legislation and the progress has not reached a point where a commission could be formed,” said the senior lawyer.
“The government wants to constitute a commission under the Commission of Inquiry Act 1956, which will be toothless and is not acceptable to the PTI.” He mentioned that hundreds of commissions had been made under the 1956 act which were of no use. The PTI wants to make a powerful judicial commission for which a special law should be enacted or its formation will not be possible.
On the other hand, legal experts believe that in the light of Article 225 of the Constitution and the Representation of People’s Act 1976, there is no room for the formation of any judicial commission in election disputes as the Constitution clearly says that the election disputes can only be decided by Election Tribunals.
Azhar Siddique, Advocate, said the reason that the chief justice of Pakistan had not constituted a judicial commission was that the election tribunals were already functioning in the light of Article 225. He said that if the government and the PTI are really serious about resolving the rigging issue, then an amendment in Section 103 AA of ROPA should be made and the Election Commission of Pakistan may be authorised to form a powerful commission for resolving any election fraud. The Section 103 AA of RoPA says that the ECP may declare any election null and void.
He said that normally the government writes to the CJP and CJs of high courts under The Commission of Inquiry Act 1956 and the judges are nominated for a commission but in the instant case the law needs to be amended to form a commission of PTI’s desire or commissions keep on working while cases keep going along simultaneously like in the case of Model Town tragedy. He, however, mentioned that the findings of a commission cannot be produced as evidence in a criminal case, meaning thereby the commissions are normally toothless.
It is worth mentioning here that under the law, it is the sole prerogative of the CJP and chief justices of the respective high courts to nominate judges for a commission. The government can only request the CJP in this regard. However, the government may form a commission comprising retired judges and experts for which it does not require the approval of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
In the recent past, many commissions were formed by the CJP and chief justices of high courts, including the Saleem Shahzad Commission, Memo Commission, Flood Commission, etc. In the constitution of Saleem Shahzad Commission, the government itself nominated Justice Saqib Nisar as the commission’s head but the judge refused because the approval of the CJ was mandatory. The Memo Commission was formed through a judicial order by the Supreme Court while hearing a petition. Justice Ghulam Rabbani was appointed by the then CJP to look into the political intervention in the National Insurance Company Limited-scam involving Rs 5 billion to determine the financiers of a malicious campaign against the judiciary.