Constitutional amendment needed in 184/3 for right of appeal: Latif Khosa

ISLAMABAD: Amidst mounting criticism against proposed legislation to amend article 184/3, senior lawyer from Pakistan People’s Party Latif Khosa has argued that the timing of the bills, introduced by government to curtail powers of Chief Justice, is not appropriate, and that such amendments cannot be made by legislation alone.

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His comments came after yesterday’s development in which the federal cabinet appro­ved a ‘controversial’ bill to deprive the office of Chief Justice of Pakistan of powers to take suo motu notice in an individual capacity, the proposed legislation was referred to the Stan­ding Committee on Law and Justice by National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf for further deliberations.

According to the proposed law, every cause, appeal, or matter before the Supreme Court shall be heard and disposed of by a bench constituted by the committee comprising the CJP and two senior-most judges in order of seniority. It added that the decisions of the committee shall be by majority.

In the bill, the right of appeal is being given to the accused party for the first time, which will be allowed to file an intra-court appeal within 30 days from the date of suo motu notice.

“An appeal shall lie within thirty days from a final order of a bench of the Supreme Court who exercised jurisdiction under clause (3) of Article 184 of the Constitution to a larger bench of the Supreme Court and such appeal shall, for hearing, be fixed within a period not exceeding fourteen days,” the bill said.

“Presently, there is no right of appeal in suo motu cases but in the proposed bill we have given the right to the accused to file intra-court appeal within 30 days,” he added.

For filing a review application under Article 188 of the Constitution, a party shall have the right to appoint counsel of its choice, as per the proposed legislation.

Talking to reporters on his arrival at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Latif Khosa said article 184/3 of the Constitution would have to be amended in order to provide the right of appeal. However, the current legislation being enacted is seen as tantamount to curtailing the judiciary, he added.

Latif Khosa questioned the legitimacy of including the opinions of members who were not part of the bench in the process of reaching to a judgement/verdict. He said Maryam Nawaz and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have a long history of attacking the judiciary.

Commenting on the flip-flopping of some politicians, he said they (PMLN) initially celebrated the decision, but soon changed their tune after realizing it was not in their favor.