Law minister hopes judiciary would let executive do its job

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar told the Senate on Tuesday there should be no interference from the executive to the judiciary and vice versa, as “we expect the judiciary to also let the executive do its job” instead of saying “don’t do this and do that”.

Replying to a supplementary question from Senator Danesh Kumar regarding deputations, the minister opposed his request of referral of a question to the House standing committee concerned.

“In my opinion, the law and rules come first. There may be court verdicts but in the matters of the executive, such general directives that the government should be run like this; this is neither a tradition nor precedent, nor the will of the Constitution,” he contended.

“There are three compartments; the executive, the legislature and the judiciary and they should adhere to non-interference,” he continued.

Earlier, during the question hour, Law Minister Tarar defended the deputation policy, as Senator Danesh Kumar alleged that the Foreign Office was violating the Supreme Court’s orders and misleading the House. He said deputations were still continuing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs against the Supreme Court orders. Responding to him, the law minister explained there was a room for deputation under the Civil Servants Act, adding the initial appointment was for three years, which could be extended for another two years. Tarar claimed even after that time the prime minister and concerned heads of the department can allow this in exceptional circumstances. He said there was room in the apex court’s judgment for prolonged deputations in exceptional cases. He pointed out that “3 plus 2 is a rule and if anybody goes beyond that, special reasons and peculiar fact have to be taken into consideration and kept in mind”.