Supreme Court refuse to send its Registrar before Public Accounts Committee
Friday, December 14th, 2012 11:13:32 by Web Desk
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has once again barred its registrar from appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament, indicating another standoff between the government and judiciary.
The PAC issued multiple notices to the SC registrar for the purpose and in the next phase the panel is mulling to review the option of sending a reference to parliament against the Supreme Court in its Friday’s meeting.
In quite an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court issued a statement saying that the parliamentary body did not have the constitutional authority to scrutinize the apex court’s accounts. It answered questions arose over the appearance of the SC registrar before the PAC body by issuing an official statement that the registrar would do no such thing.
The SC statement said the issue of appearance of registrar before PAC had been discussed in many full court meetings wherein it was decided that under the constitution as well as the law, the PAC was not competent to scrutinize the accounts of the apex court, hence the registrar was not required to appear before it.
It noted, “Reference in this regard be made to the mandatory requirement of the Constitution. In its very Preamble, the Constitution states, ‘… it is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order; wherein the independence of the judiciary shall be fully secured’,” it said.
The press statement said although the apex court saw the parliamentary body with respect, it was not authorized to scrutinize the judiciary’s accounts.
The statement reads, “Indeed, under the financial procedure of the Supreme Court, apart from the Registrar, the Chief Justice and senior judges of the Supreme Court do accord sanction of money for procurement and payments e.g. purchase of books, equipment, transport, stationary and payment of medical bills in keeping with functions assigned to them.”
It added that Article 175-3 of the constitution separated the judiciary from the executive and PAC was only authorized to scrutinize national accounts, whereas in accordance with the Article 68 of the constitution, conduct of the judges could not be debated in parliament.
Tags: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, Dr Faqeer Hussain, PAC, Public Accounts of Committee, Supreme Court, Supreme Court RegistrarShort URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=36161
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As the Parliament authorize and allocate budget to each state department, its authority to scrutinize the spending of allocated budget by all government functionaries including defense forces and judiciary is recognized and accepted in all the democratic civilized countries like USA, UK and India. In year 2011, PAC of Indian parliament asked the three service chiefs to appear before it to answer the irregularities in the affairs of Canteen Store Department and chain of ration supply system of defense forces. The service chiefs appeared in person before PAC. Honorable SC is writing new history of rule of law and justice. By all logical and ethical grounds, the registrar of SC who is a government servant in his capacity as principal accounting officer of SC should appear before PAC to dispel the impression that honorable SC is acting above the state and its account are not transparent. If army and SC refuse to appear before PAC, then it means both the institutions are above the state authority, leaving no ground for the parliament and public accounts committee of the government to exist.