ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) decided on Saturday that the number of cases filed each week and disposed of by the court will be issued regularly on a weekly basis.

In a statement, the top court said the decision to share weekly details of cases was taken to ensure transparency. Over the last week starting September 18 (Monday) and ending September 22 (Friday), at least 225 cases were lodged in the court. Out of them, 205, excluding civil miscellaneous applications (CMAs), were disposed of.

The court announcement recalled that during the meeting between Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and senior puisne judge Justice Sardar Tariq Masood with the elected representatives of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Sept 20, the elected representatives had requested that the monthly proposed cause list be issued to enable the senior counsels, advocate on record (AOR), and the parties to fully prepare their cases and to attend the court.

Conceding to the request, the Supreme Court administration decided that every effort would be made to issue the proposed cause list in advance for four weeks falling within the month.

The meeting with the bar representatives was called by CJP to develop a mechanism and guidelines for case management, especially in light of the backlog of 57,000 cases.

The meeting had also considered suggestions that the petitions instituted under Article 184(3) of the constitution – the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court on the enforcement of the fundamental rights – but it was decided that the outcome of the hearing by the full court that had taken up a set of challenges regarding the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023 will determine the fate of such cases.

As a consequence of the meeting, the court administration issued the proposed cause list for the four weeks commencing Monday. The proposed cause list is available on the Supreme Court’s website.

Meanwhile, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah is on a study tour to the United States until Oct 1, 2023 and will participate in the four-day Global Constitutionalism Seminar 2023 held at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Justice Shah will moderate one of the sessions on “equality and rights” as a discussion leader.

During his tour, he will be speaking at the Pardee School at the Boston University on Sept 25, regarding Pakistan’s developing jurisprudence and future law reforms.

He will also be teaching the comparative law class at Harvard Law School along with Prof Intisar Rabb of the Harvard Law School on comparative constitutionalism and Sharia law.

Justice Shah also intends to attend a workshop designed to explore a project regarding developing a portal for Pakistan with the most modern research facility in collaboration with Harvard Law School and the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Justice Shah will return to Pakistan on Oct 1, 2023.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2023