Pakistan’s Chief Justice, Umar Ata Bandial, clarified on Monday that the Supreme Court won’t get involved in economic issues due to a lack of the required ‘expertise.’ This declaration was made amidst a hearing concerning K-Electric privatization (KE).
The Chief Justice suggested Rashid Rizvi, the attorney for the petitioner, take his case to the relevant high court.
Despite this, he brought attention to two laws passed by the Parliament linked to clause 3 of Article 184. These laws assert that the court must first find an issue to be of public significance and be a breach of constitutional fundamental rights before exercising original jurisdiction over it.
Chief Justice Bandial also queried whether older cases were slated for hearings to enable real-time scrutiny of the issues.
Advocate Salahuddin mentioned an application against the KSC Labour Union during the proceedings, but Justice Ayesha Malik noted that the issue was not currently under the court’s consideration.
Rashid Rizvi, the lawyer for the petitioner, pushed for the hearing to be postponed until the following week. However, Justice Bandial reminded him that the court would be closed for vacation next week, making the judges unavailable.
The Chief Justice urged the attorney to prepare for the upcoming hearing and noted it had been eighteen years since the power company was privatized.
The hearing has been rescheduled for Tuesday.
