Replies sought in Speaker’s powers case

LAHORE

Lahore High Court Chief Justice on Thursday sought replies from federal government, National Assembly Speaker on a petition questioning Speaker’s powers to dismiss the disqualification reference instead of sending the same to the chief election commission while Saad Rasool, as Amicus Curie, assisted the court.

Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was hearing a petition moved by member of Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party, established by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Advocate Ashiq Hussain argued that the decision of the Speaker was in violation of the Constitution and judgments of the apex court. He said the Speaker dismissed the reference without citing any reason as required.

The counsel argued that the Speaker did not enjoy judicial powers as he was supposed to forward the reference to the ECP after a bare perusal of it. However, he said, the Speaker acted beyond his powers and dismissed the reference. He said under the law every citizen was bound to disclose his sources of accumulating his assets. He cited a number of judgments of the Supreme Court in support of his argument and stated that the prime minister and his family were bound to reveal sources of their offshore assets. The counsel urged the court to set aside the decision of the Speaker and order him to forward the reference to the ECP accordingly.

Advocate Saad Rasool, court-appointed Amicus Curie, assisted the court, saying under article 69 of the Constitution, the validity of any proceedings in the parliament shall not be called in question on the ground of irregularity of the procedure. However, the Supreme Court had laid down the principle in Yousaf Raza Gilani case that Speaker does not enjoy unfettered powers and he had wrongly refused to refer the reference against convicted prime minister to the chief election commission because the question of Raza’s disqualification had arisen under article 6=3(2) of the Constitution after he was convicted in contempt of court case by the Supreme Court. Mr Saad explained that in the instant case Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not a convicted person by a competent court of law and it had to be determined that how and in what circumstances Speaker can exercise his discretionary powers under article 63(2) and reject a reference against a parliamentarian.

Deputy Attorney General Naseer Ahmad Bhutta said the petition was not maintainable before the court. He said the acts of the parliament and the Speaker could not be challenged before court. He asked the court to dismiss the petition.

The chief justice said the impugned act of the Speaker was administrative in nature and court could review it. Justice Shah issued notices to the respondents and sought their detailed replies.

The court also took up petition of PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for alleged involvement of his family members and himself in offshore business and asked Attorney General of Pakistan for assistance on November 01.

UHS moot: A three-day international conference on medical education commenced here  on Thursday at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) with 37 workshops organised on the first day in 16 different public and private sector medical institutions of the city. According to a press release issued here, the theme of the conference is “Medical Professionalism in Challenging Times: Blending Local Values with Global Standards”, and it is being organised from the platform of Council for Collaboration in Medical Education (CCME), in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP), Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC), Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC), Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) and Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC). 

The moot is endorsed by the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE). More than 1,500 health professionals, educationists, healthcare delivery providers, policy-makers, medical students and allied health specialists will attend the conference, including some of the world authorities in medical education from United Kingdom, United States of America, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Singapore, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The inaugural session of the conference will be held on Friday (today). HEC Chairman, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad will be the chief guest.