Expressing severe reservations over the Supreme Court registrar’s refusal to appear before the body, the Public Accounts Committee on Friday decided to take a final step after consultations in its meeting on Tuesday.
The PAC met under the leadership of its chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal to review the situation after an announcement by the SC Court that its registrar will not appear before the body.
Members of the committee said they did not want to degrade any institution or individual, but vowed to review the audit of the tax payers’ money, adding that the SC registrar had insulted the top accounts body of parliament.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz members recommended forwarding the issue to the National Assembly speaker, saying the matter should be resolved in a manner that avoided confrontation between institutions, as the country could not bear more destruction and political destabilisation.
Committee Chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal highlighted the fact that until 2004, the registrars of the SC kept appearing before the committee and this was not a new demand on behalf of the body.
Gondal said the constitution permitted PAC to summon the SC registrar, saying if representatives of the Presidency, Election Commission of Pakistan and Prime Minister’s Secretariat could appear before the PAC, there was no harm in the registrar’s appearance.
He said the SC had already given its verdict that the SC registrar did not happen to be a judge of the apex court.
“PAC has sought the legal opinion by Ministry for Law and Justice, legal experts, Bar Associations and lawmakers, following which all of them clarified that PAC could summon the SC registrar,” he added.
Yasmin Rehman was of the view that legally and constitutionally, the SC registrar should appear before the PAC. “We have serious concerns on the announcement by the apex court in which it mentioned that the SC registrar would not appear before the committee.”
Noor Alam Khan said if somebody did not appear before a forum, it reflected his or her guilt.
“If the prime minister and members of the cabinet can appear before courts, why not the SC registrar,” Alam said.
He suggested the body issue summons for the registrar and directions to the police to bring him in handcuffs, suggesting that committee should execute its powers and authorities.
Upon this, PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq urged avoiding any such move and suggested moving a reference to the NA speaker.
During the meeting, three options were reviewed by PAC, including issuance of summons for the SC registrar, directly approaching the Supreme Court on the issue or moving a reference with the NA speaker along with recommendations of the body.
However, it was decided that the committee would hold another in-camera sitting on Tuesday in which the all three options would be reviewed again with conclusion of choosing any one.
The PAC chairman said if the registrar appeared before the committee in its coming sitting on Tuesday, the PAC members would warmly welcome him and would ensure giving him the due respect.
Earlier the audit objections in connection with National Assembly Secretariat, Senate Secretariat, DHA, FWO and the Supreme Court were reviewed.
SC and its registrar is in deep trouble after SC issued order for not appearing in the PAC.
it would be interesting to see what PAC do now – after all now its the Parliament to decide what to do with SC registrar – this is called "Turning of the Table".
In a democracy, the elected representatives are supreme and ALL executive functionaries are answerable to them. In America (and all the western world) the house committees call whoever they want to interview and they have to appear before them and give their depositions. Supreme court is not above the laws and definitely not above the elected representatives. Even if any judge has to be called by any committee he has to submit to it.
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