In the face of a continuous stand-off with the superior judiciary and subsequently expecting a prolonged argument in a number of cases pending in the Supreme Court, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led federal government has decided to create a new section in the solicitor wing of the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Division to exclusively deal with “special cases in the Supreme Court”.
According to Law Ministry sources, the work in the Solicitor Wing of the ministry has increased manifold; especially the Sol-II section is overloaded with work as it is also dealing with the special cases filed in the Supreme Court. Ministry officials said the Sol-II section was not in a position to cope with the work with its current staff, comprising only one assistant, one UDC and one LDC.
Under the circumstances, the Law Ministry has proposed to the competent authority to create a new section in the ministry. The Sol-II section of the ministry processed 9,849 diaries in 2008 and 2009 as compared to 5,605 diaries processed by Sol-I and 5,748 by Sol-III during the same period. Sources said the Sol-III section was created many years ago but a post of section officer was not sanctioned and the work of that section was badly affected.
The authorities have also requested that two posts of section officers for Sol-III and Sol-IV may also be sanctioned. If the proposal is approved, Sol-IV would deal with the special cases in the Supreme Court, labour cases and Shariat petitions, while Sol-I would deal with suits and appeals, Sol-II would deal with service appeals and Sol-III would deal with writ petitions and appeals.
There are around 20 cases pending in the SC out of which some directly concern high-level government personalities. These high-profile cases include the Swiss cases involving President Asif Ali Zardari, the Haj scam case, the Rs 5 billion National Insurance Corporation Limited scam case, the Rs 9 billion Bank of Punjab (BoP) loan scam case, smuggling through International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) containers, over Rs 256 billion in loans written off illegally, review plea against the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict and the presidential reference to revisit the death sentence of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
