ISLAMABAD - A three-member bench that Tuesday heard the petitions against 21st Constitutional Amendment under which the military courts have been established referred the matter to the chief justice of Pakistan for constituting a full court.
The bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Mushir Alam hearing the petitions of Lahore High Court Bar Association and 10 others made clear that in first stage the 18th Amendment case would be taken up.
Due to heart attack Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk had in Peshawar last week and heart ailment of Justice Gulzar Ahmed last Friday night the bench was changed. It is expected that Justice Gulzar will undergo bypass today (Wednesday) at Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology.
In less than five minutes hearing the court noted that Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) had not filed reply so far. Advocate General ICT Mian Abdur Rauf informed that they were only issued notices and were not required to file reply on LHCBA petition. However, the bench directed him to file reply within three days. The federation and all the four provinces have already submitted replies.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Tuesday directed the federal and all provincial governments to submit a written reply fixing responsibility for the errors in printing of law books.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany heard the case. The secretaries of law ministry of federation and all the four provinces were present during the hearing. Justice Jawwad said that if the government would not take action then they would initiate proceedings against the responsible persons.
During the proceedings, the bench noted people don’t have access to laws on terrorism, while everyone was talking about it in the country. He said if it would take two years to upload laws on websites of the federal and provincial governments then, till that time, the nation would remain in dark about these laws.
The court noted that the federal and provincial governments were not ready to fulfill their responsibilities. He said that Bangladesh was separated from Pakistan but now they had laws in Bangali, besides English.
Attorney General for Pakistan informed that IT expert services had been hired who would be computerising the system, adding once it is done then on daily basis the record would be updated.
Secretary law and justice commission told the court that they were working as per timeline and the commission would monitor all the developments.
The court directed the attorney general to apprise the prime minister about this case, while the law officers of the provincial governments were asked to inform the chief ministers of their provinces that the court had passed the judgment for removing the errors from law books.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja on February 10 had passed a judgment directing that the complete Pakistan Code (the Code) shall be compiled and displayed on the website of the Federal Law Ministry. Bound hard copies of the Code shall be made available for sale throughout the country so as to making it easily accessible to the public, at inexpensive prices.
An alphabetical consolidated word index containing the words in the title of a statute and words defined in the provisions of a statute containing definitions shall be included in the alphabetical index.
As a sample of the required consolidated word index, the consolidated index appearing at the end of volume 16 of the Pakistan Code published by the manager of publications, Karachi (1968), may be used as a rudimentary sample. Improvements in the sample must be made by using technology and benefiting from the codes published by common law jurisdictions in the subcontinent and elsewhere.
The Code shall include in foot-notes, particulars of amendments made from time to time in the various statutes published in the Code. Marginal notes shall be made to cross reference the provisions of one statute with related provisions in another statute.
The sample of the Pakistan Code published by the Manager of Publications (1968) may be adapted and improved.
Translation into the national language shall be completed and displayed in easily understandable form at inexpensive prices. Translations of the Code into provincial/vernacular languages where deemed appropriate by provinces shall be made by the provinces. Subordinate legislation in the form of rules and regulations framed under statutory powers shall be compiled in the form of a Code. This shall also contain a consolidated word index.
A compendium of all statutory orders and notifications shall be compiled and shall be made available to the public at inexpensive prices. A legislative and/or administrative regime shall be prepared with effective enforcement and prosecution mechanisms to ensure that law publications for sale to the public are error-free and, where applicable, have the permission of the Government owning to copyrighted material.
The provinces shall follow the same pattern of publication of soft and hard copies of laws, rules and notifications as has been ordered for the federation.