Senate of Pakistan adopts Resolution regarding dual nationality of Judges

http://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/

The Senate today unanimously adopted Resolution moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar calling upon the government to drastically amend the Official Secrets Act of 1923 and to make it consistent with the constitutionally guaranteed right to information, fair trial and fundamental rights.

Speaking on the resolution the Senator said that information is withheld even from the Parliament on the ground of it being secret or confidential without laying down any guidelines as to who classifies a document as secret and how. Pointing out its out dated nature he said that Section 4 dealing with communication with foreign agents to be evidence of certain offences says that “a person may be presumed to have been in communication with a foreign agent if he has, either within or without Pakistan visited the address of a foreign agent or consorted or associated with a foreign agent, or either within or without Pakistan, the name or address of or any other information regarding a foreign has been found in his possession, or has been obtained by him from any other person”.

The expression ‘foreign agent’ he said includes “any person who is or has been or in respect of whom it appears that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting him of being or having been employed by a foreign power either directly or indirectly”. Thus if a visiting card of a foreign diplomat or businessman is found in the possession of anyone and about whom the government may allege that the diplomat or businessman had sometime in the past been ‘an agent’ of a foreign power the person from whose possession the visiting card has been found would be liable to be prosecuted and declared guilty of associating with an enemy agent.

He said that in India recently a review of the Secrets Act has been undertaken and the government of Pakistan must also review the outdated Act and bring amendments to it before the Parliament. The House unanimously adopted the resolution.

Earlier speaking on a motion moved by Dr Karim Khwaja for a Constitution court Farhatullah Babar said that for the past few years a new doctrine was being propounded according to which the Constitution, and not the Parliament, was supreme and that the Constitution was what the SC said. This formulation of the constitutional doctrine can have profound implications for other state institutions in the event of a disagreement between the courts and the other institutions. He said that in such an event there is a possibility of a constitutional interpretation that might seem to favor courts in relation to other state institutions and thereby tilt the balance in a way not envisaged in the constitutional chem of things. In such a situation he said it is imperative that we have a separate constitution court to address and resolve constitutional matters only and is not mandated to perform other functions of the SC. In some other countries he said the constitution courts existed and Pakistan should also consider setting it up in line with the provisions of charter of democracy signed in 2006 between Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif. He said that at the time of the 18th amendment it was the PML-N which suggested that its consideration be postponed till a later date. Now is the time for the government to take it up with other parties as well and give the proposal a serious thought, he said.

The House today also unanimously adopted the resolution moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar calling upon the government to publish the names of those judges of the superior judiciary who have dual nationality. The resolution has been on the agenda of the house for the past several months as the names of judges with dual nationality were not provided to the Senate even when questions were repeatedly asked in the House in this regard.