The Sindh High Court has dismissed petitions against the promulgation of Constitutional Benches of High Court of Sindh (Practice & Procedure) Ordinance.
The court was informed that the ordinance has been repealed and an act of law has been promulgated; therefore, petitions are no more maintainable. The SHC, after taking the statement on record, dismissed the petitions accordingly.
Ali Tahir and other petitioners said the impugned ordinance is a significant intervention in the administration and the adjudication of constitutional matters within the SHC by the executive brancnh. The ordinance purports to regulate the constitution, jurisdiction, administration and procedure of the constitutional benches established under Article 202-A of the constitution, they added.
They said that although Article 202-A(6), added after the 27th amendment, allows the PA to regulate how the constitutional benches of the SHC work, the way this ordinance was issued raises concerns. The clause uses the phrase “Act of the Provincial Assembly”, and while the constitution’s definitions include an ordinance within that category, the troubling part is that the ordinance was not issued by the governor at all, they added.
They said that it was instead pushed through an acting governor in clear haste, almost as if there was a race to show how quickly control over the judiciary can be tightened. One is left to ask what possible urgency existed that the PA could not meet, debate and pass this measure through normal legislative process, they added. They said any step that touches the judiciary should be taken with serious reflection, broad consultation and transparency, but in this case there was no input from the bar council, no engagement with civil society and, apparently, not even a conversation with the judiciary itself. In the present case there was no pressing emergency that warranted bypassing the legislative process, especially when the matter relates to a judicial reform, they added.
