October 05, 2008	Sunday	Shawwal 05, 1429

LAHORE, Oct 4: Hoping to restore the defunct deputy commissioners/district magistrates with all their lost colonial might, the Punjab government intends to agitate the related legal and constitutional issues long settled before the elimination of the post in 2001.

The thinking as reported by high placed officials is that the deputy commissioners should be restored with all their powers lost during the process of separation of judiciary from the executive if at all one is inclined to improve administration in the province.

The thinking is based on the notion that the separation was made one-sided and while separating the judiciary from the executive, even vital powers of the latter were encroached upon by the former.

To define the idea, the officials say, long before the separation of judiciary from the executive in 1996, the Law Reforms Committee headed by Justice Hamoodur Rehman gave recommendations on administrative reforms in 1969. The then government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto subsequently promulgated the Law Reforms Ordinance in 1972 by simply copying the report.

The clause of separating the judiciary from the executive in 14 years was incorporated in the 1973 Constitution in the light of the ordinance but nothing was done to follow it afterwards.

As a result the Supreme Court gave its famous decision on separation of powers in 1996, leaving only local and special laws with the executive and the rest with the judiciary.

Officials say Punjab government’s view is that while giving the timeframe of the separation, the Bhutto government did not define the terms “executive” and the “judiciary”, allowing the snatching of vital executive functions needed to establish the writ of the government on its subjects.

For example, they add, the bail bond powers of the deputy commissioners under Sections 107 and 115 of the Cr.P.C were transferred to the judiciary, robbing the executive of the natural tools to make two quarreling groups to stop fighting or face action.Again powers under Section 135 of the Cr.P.C allowing deputy commissioners to attach subject matter of a dispute were also transferred to the judiciary, depriving the executive the powers to resolve disputes without any major damage.

Finally, the court decision and the Hamoodur Rehman report are entirely different. Officials say that the wish of the provincial government can come true either by extending the timeframe of 14 years through bringing an amendment to Section 175(3) of the Constitution, or by filing a review petition in the Supreme Court to make certain alterations/corrections in the 1996 verdict on the separation of judiciary from the executive.

They agree that desire of the government is sure to open a settled issue but say that this is necessary for correcting the wrongs done in the past.