KARACHI, Dec 17: Participants of a workshop on judicial reforms called for constitutional amendments to ensure the independence of the judiciary.

The workshop, organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, was chaired by former chief justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui, who ceased to hold office on his refusal to swear allegiance to the military regime in 2001, and conducted by HRCP secretary-general Iqbal Haider.

Former Sindh High Court judges Mrs Majida Rizvi, Haziqul Khairi, Dr Ghous Muhammad and A. Waheed Siddiqui; Advocates Hamid Khan, Kamaluddin Azfar, Abrar Hasan,Owaisuddin Ahmed; and Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice-president Naqi Bari and secretary Mohib Habib were among the participants. Prof Habibur Rahman, former dean of the Karachi University’s faculty of law, contributed a paper.

Among the topics discussed were manner and mechanism of appointment and transfer of judges; fiscal autonomy of the judiciary; accountability of the judiciary; transparency of the conduct of proceedings and reporting in the media; legal education and training; the pros and cons of parallel judicial systems; the ways and means of avoiding delay in disposal of cases; the role of lawyers and their professional bodies; and matters related to public interest litigation.

Advocate Hamid Khan circulated a draft bill containing constitutional amendments to guarantee independence of the superior courts. The draft not only incorporates most of the salutary aspects of the 1996 Supreme Court judgment in the judges’ case but goes further and proposes appointment of a judicial commission to replace the Supreme Judicial Council under Article 209 of the Constitution.

The commission, to be headed by the chief justice of Pakistan, would also consist of representatives of parliament and the Bar. It would not only be empowered to take disciplinary action against the superior court judges but would also make appointments to the supreme and high courts. The president shall be bound to appoint the senior-most judges as chief justices of their respective courts. The commission will replace ‘the judicial consultees’ (chief justices) in the matter of appointment of judges and its opinion will be binding unless rejected by the president for cogent reasons, which will be justifiable.

Advocate Iqbal Haider said Pakistan was entering the WTO regime without due legal preparation. Justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui said the WTO was, in fact, a series of agreements consisting of thousands of pages. The agreements should have been thoroughly discussed before accession to the organization. Non-tariff barriers such as countervailing duties, he said, were more worrisome than the tariff barriers.

The KCCI representatives said the stakeholders were not duly consulted before accession to the WTO. They requested lawyers to be selective in accepting briefs. Referring to a newspaper report, they condemned the four-billion-rupee sales tax fraud that has brought a bad name to the trading community. Bogus exports to Europe were shown in the record only to claim tax rebate, they said, and called for due punishment to the perpetrators.