Outrage over seeking of parliamentary proceedings record by apex court: Ex-PM wants NA to summon CJP

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Senior Vice President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said that the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial should be summoned to parliament and asked why the National Assembly session record was sought.

He said the top court recently sought the record of the proceedings of NA sessions with regard to the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Act 2023, which was beyond its jurisdiction. He said that the record of the National Assembly is always the property of the House. “The speaker cannot provide the record of the House without its consent to any institution,” he said.

Abbasi said it was an issue of supremacy and sanctity of the House, which should be taken seriously. “You should put the issue before the House and then members will decide the matter and will question as to why the record was sought by the Supreme Court,” he said.

Earlier, the National Assembly members called upon the speaker not to share any record of proceedings without the consent of the House. The speaker, after hearing the views of the members on SC orders, accountability of judges and audio leak of former CJP Saqib Nisar, maintained that there would be no compromise on the sovereignty of the House. “As custodian of the House, I assure you that there will be no compromise on supremacy and sovereignty of the House,” he said.

Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the House should pass a resolution allowing parliament to inquire into and hold accountable (even posthumously) those judges who aided and abetted constitutional violations. He said the inquest, into unethical judicial interventions to destabilise the fountain of democracy and ensure its destruction, must start from the Dosso vs Federation case of 1958 where the court invented the Doctrine of Necessity to justify all wrongs. He said a committee of the whole House should be formed as a result of the resolution to hold the judges accountable. It should inquire starting from Justice Munir to the recent past what has been happening with the Constitution and parliament.

“We are standing at the crossroads of history which is in the making. We should act resolutely,” he said, adding that they were with the courts but were against trespassing territorial boundaries of the Constitution.

He said it was the duty of the judges to dispose of cases and dispense justice instead of wrangling in constitutional issues. “There are 400,000 cases including cases of bails pending with higher judiciary but their focus is on other issues,” he said.

The PMLN leader said that it was a fact that the two institutions were on the path of confrontation due to differences of opinion or otherwise. The speaker asked the defence minister if a resolution could be moved for the whole committee of the House.

MNA and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Noor Alam Afridi said that the PAC summoned the Principal Accounting Officer of the Supreme Court on May 16 afternoon as no audit of SC had been conducted since 2010-11. He said he was using the powers under the Constitution.

The PAC has also asked ex-chief justice Saqib Nisar for an audit of the Mohmand and Diamer-Bhasha dams fund.

Similarly, he said the PAC had also sought records of salaries, pensions and other facilities given to judges of the higher judiciary. He said the PAC could summon officials of the Supreme Court, ministries and any other subordinate departments. “I also call upon the chair and the House to support me on the same issue,” he said.

PMLN’s Chaudhry Birjees Tahir thanked the speaker for writing a letter to the Supreme Court to apprise the judiciary of the sanctity and supremacy of the House. He said that whenever the Supreme Court sought a record of proceedings of the National Assembly, it was never provided to the apex court. He recalled that then Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, through his executive order, directed the release of judges who were under house arrest. “There should be a comparison between our struggle for the restoration of judiciary and the act of courts to humiliate parliament,” he said. He reiterated that no record of proceedings of the House should be provided to the Supreme Court.

The Leader of the Opposition, Raja Riaz, was also of the view that the record of proceedings of the House should not be provided to the apex court. He alleged that judges and their family members have been involved in bargaining for PTI tickets. “This is the first election in which a family member of a judge is involved in selling party tickets,” he said, adding that the parliamentarians would stand bravely to defend parliament and its sanctity and that such acts of selling party tickets were not tolerable.

PMLN’s Mian Javed Latif suggested to the chair that the special committee constituted through a motion on Tuesday, should also call former judge Shaukat Siddiqui for what he said about Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed and Saqib Nisar. He said the committee should also summon Faiz Hameed, Farah Gogi, Imran Khan and his wife on the audio leaks issue.

He said parliament should also stand behind the chief election commissioner otherwise he would also meet the fate of ex-justices Shaukat Siddiqui and Waqar Seth.

PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar said that except for parliament, no other institution has the authority to rewrite the Constitution or change it. Regarding political dialogue, the PPP parliamentarian said that it has been the philosophy of his party to find solutions to every problem through talks. “That is why we started a dialogue to come out of the ongoing crisis and it moved forward while addressing every component,” he said.

He said that a headway was made on different matters but more discussions were required on holding elections, adding that holding elections on the same day was necessary. “It was our view as to why the assemblies which have not completed their tenure should be dissolved,” he said.

However, the veteran politician from Sindh said the other side says that the dialogue should move forward in the light of directives of the court. “We are holding dialogue independently as we want to resolve the crisis,” he added. He said the coalition government wanted the success of dialogue while remaining within the ambit of the Constitution.

Naveed Qamar said he wanted to put on the record that the ruling coalition showed all the flexibility and respect for the Constitution. “Date of May 14 does not even meet the criteria of holding elections of dissolved assembly within 90 days,” he said. He said that the stubborn attitude being shown by the leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would result in a disaster and both the government and opposition would suffer. “Neither we nor you will exist,” he said, questioning how long the history would continue to record failures of the system. “I will call upon stakeholders not to subvert the process of dialogue and find a solution in the light of the Constitution without giving any opportunity to any other institution,” he said. Federal Minister Naveed Qamar was of the view that whenever democracy was derailed, the country went decades behind.

Meanwhile, the PAC summoned the Supreme Court Registrar on May 16 for examining the audit of the accounts of the Supreme Court of Pakistan for the financial year 2010-11 to 2021-22. PAC Chairman Noor Alam Khan warned that if the Registrar did not appear, he would issue a warrant for his appearance. “If the stay order is taken on the warrant, I will issue the warrants again,” he said. He also instructed the Auditor General of Pakistan to present a comparison of the salary of Supreme Court judges, president, prime minister and federal ministers.

Immediately after the PAC meeting, the notice of the PAC for May 16 for the examination of the audit of the Supreme Court of the financial year of 2010-11 to 2021-22 was also issued. For the May 16 meeting, the committee has also summoned the finance, planning and development and law secretaries.