ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: After a break of almost two months, the Senate is starting its session on Monday to discuss, among other issues, a motion on the process of judges’ appointment and a resolution asking the government to publish names of judges having dual nationality.

Both the motion and the resolution have been moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar of Peoples Party.

A motion by four PPP senators to discuss the “overall performance of the government with particular reference to the security and protection of the minority citizens in the country as required under Article 25 of the Constitution” is also on the 16-point agenda of the private members’ day issued by Senate Secretary Amjed Pervez.

The issues of the procedure for the appointment of judges in superior courts, excessive use of suo motu powers and judges holding dual nationality have been under discussion in the Senate for over two years. The mechanism for the appointment of the judges came under focus after some bar bodies also voiced concerns and demanded changes in rules.

Under the 18th Amendment, judges are appointed through a bipartisan Parliamentary Committee with equal representation of the government and opposition from both the National Assembly and Senate. However, the members, particularly belonging to the PPP and Awami National Party, have been comp-laining that the committee has been rendered ineffective by the Judicial Commission overturning its decisions.

Talking to Dawn, Senator Babar expressed the hope that the discussion on the appointments and dual-national judges would facilitate a larger national debate on a host of issues ranging from foreign nationality of judges to the use of suo motu powers and the contempt law and an “overactive judiciary that appeared to undermine parliament itself”.

He said that instead of giving a straight answer to a parliamentary question about names of dual-national judges, if any, the judiciary had merely stated that neither the constitution nor the law barred dual nationals from becoming judges.

Mr Babar, who is also spokesman for former president Asif Ali Zardari, said Article 63(1) barred dual nationals from becoming members of parliament and a number of parliamentarians had been disqualified for this reason.

The senator said that under the rules, persons holding dual nationality were not eligible for appointment in the armed forces, even though the constitution placed no such bar.

He said the rules for the competitive examination also required that a candidate having dual nationality must surrender his second nationality.

“During hearings, the courts have been making observations that would seem to be strictures against dual nationals holding some positions,” he added.

In the face of such serious reservations about dual-nationals, he said, it was pertinent to ask whether there were dual-national judges even if the constitution and the law did not place any fetters on them.

Senator Babar regretted that in reply to a parliamentary question on use of suo motu powers, a high court had declined the information on the ground that it militated against the independence of judiciary.

“One fails to understand how withholding information of such great public importance enhanced the dignity or independence of the courts,” he said.

He said that several issues in parliament-judiciary relations had come to the fore after the restoration of judiciary as a result of a popular movement and they needed to be addressed.

Earlier this month, the PPP senator had raised the issue of 'conflict’ between judiciary and parliament at the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva, asking the IPU to send its delegations to various countries for assessing open and concealed threats to parliaments.