- Senator Babar says questions bound to rise when suo motu powers tread into domain of other institutions
The Upper House of the Parliament unanimously adopted resolution moved by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar on Monday calling upon the government to enact legislation for providing the right to revise decisions taken in suo motu cases by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP).
The treasury benches showed no objection to the resolution when Rabbani put it before the House and was thus declared as unanimously adopted.
Talking to journalists later, Senator Babar termed the unanimous adoption of the resolution “landmark development” as it placed obligation on the government to now adopt appropriate legislation with regard to streamlining suo motu procedure.
“Some suo motu notices have provided great relief and are most welcome no doubt, but at the same time, it should also be remembered that it places vast powers in the hands of judiciary,” he said.
“The greater the power in the hands of an individual or an institution the greater is the need and responsibility to exercise it with abundant caution because any power that is not regulated by law or is exercised excessively can result in very serious consequences,” he said.
“Questions are bound to arise when suo motu powers are exercised in a manner that seems to be treading into the domain of other institutions. In exercise of suo motu powers, a citizen must feel that he is getting his right and not bounty from the court and its exercise must be guided by law and not by populism. This calls for regulating use of suo motu powers by legislation,” he said.
Babar recalled that two years ago a question was asked in the Senate by Senator Karim Khwaja for details of suo motu action taken by each high court since 2009. In reply, three HCs did not furnish any reply at the time, the Sind HC said it had not taken any suo motu notice since 2009 whereas the IHC stated that seeking such information amounted to having a check on the judiciary which militates against its independence.
He said that some suo motu cases had raised questions in legal circles some time ago. The cases include the case of grant of bail in a case of two wine bottles and notices to president, prime minister, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general (DG), former ambassador Husain Haqqani on the basis of a letter from a Canadian national of Pakistani origin that national security was threatened, known as the memo gate.
“A great potential harm in taking too many and too readily suo motu notices is that when the Supreme Court takes up cases the parties involved are denied the right to appeal as the SC verdicts cannot be appealed,” said Senator Babar.
He said that sometime back, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) delegation, after visiting Pakistan reported that it appeared that the courts “exceeded the limits of a reasonable use of this procedure”. It said that this leads to a “corrosion of the rule of law and a blurring of the constitutional separation of powers”.
The ICJ also strongly recommended that the Supreme Court adopt rules setting out the criteria for the use of suo motu procedures and for the allocation of cases to benches.
