Suo Standards: The key to the Supreme Court’s success

COURTESY DAWN

Waris Husain

The Supreme Court of Pakistan – File Photo

A visiting delegation from the International Commission of Jurists criticised Pakistan’s Court for exercising suo motu excessively, stating that judicial interventions were seen by some as the court exercising “undue influence.” A representative for the Supreme Court rejected the claim as being based on faulty information, because the rules for suo motu are laid out in Article 184(3) of the Constitution and in case law. However, learned experts inside the country including Asma Jahangir, have asked the court to create a legal standard for the use of suo motu. Though suo motu has been used to remedy several of the nation’s major issues, its practice cannot continue until a legal standard is developed that takes into account all the potential negative aspects of its use.

Classification continued

Classification: Powers of the Government/Legislature to create and protect classes in conformity with the stated objective:

                                                           

1.       Independent Newspapers Corporation (Pvt) Limited v. Chairman Fourth Wage Award 1999 SCMR 1533

We are conscious that the purpose of Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act,, 1973, is the betterment of the financial condition of the persons employed in the Newspaper Establishment and it should receive beneficent construction but in an interpretative effort to pragmatize this piece of legislation and treat a particular benefit as wages and then fix the rate thereof, the       Wage Board cannot travel beyond the spectrum of  the impact of its decision on the Newspaper Industry, ignore the factors envisaged by section 10 of the Act, which is not exhaustive in character and determinative of all the relevant considerations p regulating the fixation of wages. The Board has to act objectively and not subjectively. We are, therefore, unable to accept grant of so large a width to the powers of the Board to brand such a benefit as wages.

Lawyering the law: A rebuttal

It seems that some people are more interested in their own agendas and axes to grind than any real discussion on history or facts. The context of this ninth pillar of wisdom is an article by by Urooj Zia in Pakistan Today.

1973 Constitution is theocratic in form and substance

By Yasser Latif Hamdani (courtesy Daily Times)

While there is no consensus on whether Pakistan was envisaged as an Islamic or a secular state, there is remarkable consensus that Pakistan was not meant by the founding fathers to be a theocracy. Indeed, most Pakistanis insist that Pakistan was not envisaged as and is not a theocratic state but as a modern Islamic democratic state.