ISLAMABAD: Justice Qazi Faez Isa remarked during a Supreme Court (SC) hearing that media is not free in the nation when real journalists are being thrown out of the country.
When he asked Attorney-General of Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan if media was free, the AGP requested the chance to answer in more than just a yes or no.
To this, Justice Isa said that a referendum should be held with the media persons present in the courtroom.
He said that the media in the court should raise their hands if they think the media is free and, in another question, to raise their hand if they think there was freedom of the press in the country.
In both cases, no journalist raised their hand.
On the occasion, he also opined on local government (LG) elections, stating that local body (LB) elections are a constitutional requirement but the provinces would rather list their problems than fulfil their constitutional duty.
Justice Isa even said that Punjab had “killed” democracy by dissolving the local government before the expiry of its term and inquired into why this was done.
He asked if Punjab was in the mood to abolish the LG system altogether. To this, the Punjab additional advocate-general said a new law had been made for local governments in the province.
Justice Isa pointed out that while local bodies have been dissolved during martial law, such a move is “unheard of” during democratic rule.
He said that Punjab had violated the Constitution by doing so and wondered if it would keep repeating the move until a government of its liking came along.
If democracy is lost, half the country will be gone, he warned.
“ECP says there will be huge cost of Rs18 billion on local bodies elections,” Justice Isa remarked. “Yet huge development funds are being released for politicians.”
Justice Maqbool Baqir, another member of the SC bench hearing the case, said that judges should ideally avoid such comments, but what can be done when the country itself is not in an ideal situation.
“How long can judges remain silent?” Justice Baqir asked.
Speaking on a separate matter, AGP Khan told the court that a nationwide census was conducted in 2017, but a final notification has yet to be issued on it.
In reply, Justice Isa asked if the country had gone to sleep after 2017. The AGP explained that the provincial government in Sindh and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party held objections against the results of the 2017 census, and so the federal government had formed a committee to review the matter.
Justice Isa told the AGP not to name any political party, reminding him that this was a constitutional matter.
The AGP said that the census will be conducted again on 5 per cent of the population blocks in Sindh.
The SC judge asked why no objection had been raised between 2017 and 2021 when this was a routine matter. “Is Pakistan generally being run like this?” he asked.
Who is the chairman of the Council of Common Interests (CCI), Justice Isa asked, to which the attorney-general responded that the prime minister is the CCI chairman.
He then asked if the premier had convened a meeting of the CCI, on which the attorney-general informed the judge that a CCI meeting had been called but could not take place for some reason.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday informed the apex court that LB elections in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and cantonment boards will be held in phases starting April.
Last week, the apex court had directed the commission to furnish a comprehensive response within a week on holding the LB polls across the country.
According to the dates provided by the commission, in KP, the election will be held in two phases: the first phase on April 8 and the second on May 29.
The schedule of the first phase will be announced on February 12, while for the second phase, on March 25.
Similarly, it said, the elections in Punjab will be held in three phases, where polling in the first phase will be held on June 20, followed by the second phase on July 16, and the third on August 8.
The schedule for the elections will also be announced in phases, the commission said.
In a similar way, the nationwide elections for the cantonment boards will also be held on April 8 and May 29, it added.
“The election commission held two sessions over the instructions of the Supreme Court to deliberate on the local government elections in the provinces, Islamabad and the cantonment boards,” the ECP said. “The minutes of the meetings have also been attached.”
“The matter of local council elections in Sindh and Balochistan have been postponed till February 11 meeting,” it said.
In November, Justice Isa, while hearing a case pertaining to the holding of LB elections in KP, had described the absence of a grassroots government in the province as a brazen disregard of the law, observing that neither the chief minister nor the provincial cabinet members were abiding by the Local Government Act, 2013, and the Constitution by not holding the elections.
The term of the elected local government representatives in the province expired on August 28, 2019. Thus the people continue to be deprived of democracy, the court had regretted, adding the violation of the Constitution must be brought to an end.
