Law Minister Senator Azam Nazir Tarar told the National Assembly that legislation is underway to take disciplinary action against judges who do not decide cases within a year.
Responding to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Qaiser’s speech in the session, Nazir Tarar said that Parliament has the authority to enact legislation within the constitutional framework.
“Asad Qaiser is very ‘respectable’ for me as he used to be sitting on the speaker’s chair.
Shedding light on the contents of the supposed draft, Tarrar said it had “not yet been presented before the federal cabinet as a draft nor in the CCLC (Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases)”
Addressing the opposition, he added that further scrutiny is still to be done. “We will send you the draft only when our work is done.”
Defending the proposed constitutional package, the law minister said, “25 crore people have given us the authority, we have to decide the direction of the country and not the Chief Justice deciding the rate of sugar or the installation of electricity poles.”
Azam Nazir Tarar asserted that he wanted to propose a constitutional court, which was immediately linked to the tenure of the Chief Justice of Pakistan wrongly.
That constituional court will act like a judicial commission comprising of a chief justice and 7 to 8 judges, he said. All the provinces will be represented in this constitutional court.
“We want our judges to be held accountable and their performances be reviewed on yearly bases,” Tarrar stated. Additionally, he also said that this will remind the judges enjoying privileges more than anyone else to know that they have to decide for the matters of people from low-income strata to wrap up soonerwhich otherwise don’t happen as it is said, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
“Because of our weaknesses, we want our cases to go to the Supreme Court and be resolved there because we cannot resolve these cases by sitting together,” the Law minister commented, targeting the community of politicians.
The Law Minister said that right now the government is bringing the package of Criminal Code which includes 90 different amendments from arrest to registration of FIR, entry of challans, role of prosecution and bails and judgments of cases, time of trial. A judge will be required to decide a case in one year of the trial time otherwise there will be disciplinary action against that judge.
“I challenge that the opposition can ask any lawyer council about this package and if it is rejected, I will be responsible,” claimed the law minister.
Earlier,PTI’s Asad Qaiser, while expressing his opinion in the National Assembly session, had questioned the intentions of the treasury benches stating that if the minister does not have the package, then where has this draft came from.
Asad Qaiser exclaimed, “Is the opposition an enemy of this country? We want you bring the amendments and discuss them here in the House first. Legislation in the dark of the night or in a secretive manner is a stain on the face of the Parliament.”
