ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) plea to live-stream NAB amendment was dismissed due to concerns that the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan will use the facility for political purposes and point scoring.
“Our apprehension proved correct later in the day. When Imran Khan addressed the Court on (30 May 2024) he also mentioned other cases, the general elections held on 8 February 2023, a commission of inquiry and his incarceration; all these matters have nothing to do with the subject matter of these appeals,” said the four judges order.
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and comprised of Justice Aminud Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi on May 30, while hearing the ICAs of the federations and some individuals against the SC judgment on NAB amendments, by majority of 4-1 dismissed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s petition to live broadcast the proceedings. Justice Athar dissented.
SC says decision not to live-stream NAB amendments case due to concerns of political misuse
“This cannot be permitted as it would thwart the proper administration of justice. Commenting on matters not under consideration may affect public perception. The rights of those who are not before us, including their fundamental right to fair trial and due process may also be affected.”
The application, in addition to being not maintainable, has no merit. Surprisingly, the Advocate-General has also not stated why the sudden interest, or desire, for live-streaming, when the KP government did not join the hearings of CP No. 21/2022, let alone make a similar request when this Court was hearing the petition. Considerable time of this Court was unnecessarily taken by attending to this application, which for the stated reasons is dismissed,” the order further said.
Advocate-General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on May 30 during the proceeding of NAB amendments case submitted that the KP government had filed an application for live-streaming of the hearing.
The only reason he gave was that the ‘non live showing of only the instant matter amongst others is discrimination’.
The order said: “The reason is factually incorrect because only a very few cases have been/are live-streamed. There are also instances of cases which were initially live streamed but in the interest of justice it was discontinued.”
It noted that the application also does not cite any law in its support. The order said: “The AG KP surely must know that Article 25 of the Constitution stipulates that all citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of law, but the application does not say how the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is being denied equality or equal protection of law.” “Therefore, on this ground alone the said application could be dismissed, but we did not do so and have decided it on merits,” it added.
The order said that Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi filed a constitutional petition (CP No. 21/2022) directly in the Supreme Court, under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. Imran had engaged the services of a large number of lawyers, led by advocate Khawaja Haris, to represent him in the petition.
Fifty-three hearings of CP No. 21/2022 were held and, as per the record, Imran did not personally attend a single hearing. And, neither he, the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa nor any other party requested to live broadcast/stream the hearings.
Two intra-court appeals were filed against the majority judgment dated 15 September 2023. Notices of the appeals were served on Imran through the Jail Superintendent since he is incarcerated. He submitted that he will represent himself. Therefore, directions were issued to connect him to this Court through video-link, which was done.
Imran, on 30 May 2024 requested access to counsel and that he wanted to consult with Khawaja Haris Ahmad. The Court, therefore directed Kh Haris to meet Imran in jail along with two other lawyers. The order said since Niazi is now represented, he need not be provided video-link facility, however, this facility is being continued.
It also said the KP government was not arrayed by Imran as a party in CP No. 21/2022, nor did it seek to be arrayed as a party. And, it did not participate in a single hearing. Since it was not a party in CP No. 21/2022 the KP government was not arrayed as a party in these appeals.
The public has shown little or no interest in the matter of whether the amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 are sustainable on the constitutional plane, nonetheless this Court, on its own volition was live-streaming the hearing of these appeals.
For the first time in its history, on 18 September 2023, the proceedings of the Supreme Court were live broadcast and then live-streamed. Thereafter, from time to time, matters which were considered to be of public interest were live-streamed; 40 hearings have so far been live-streamed.
This initiative was taken to provide to the general public and lawyers throughout Pakistan direct access to the courtroom in respect of matters of public interest. The objective was manifold, including: educational, openness and transparency, forestalling misreporting or one-sided reporting, facilitating lawyers on how best to articulate their propositions, how to effectively conduct cases and how to behave in the courtroom.
However, in live-streaming cases there is always a possibility that the facility may be misused or exploited for ulterior or personal purposes. There is also the possibility of grandstanding while the nation watches. This Court must be vigilant against such misuse and/or exploitation.
The order said that a Full-Court Meeting of Supreme Court, held on 18 September 2023, by majority decided that Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 and it must be telecast live, to assess the short comings and to formulate modalities in an effective manner.’
‘A Committee comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah was also constituted to consider future telecast/streaming and work out the modalities regarding telecast/streaming of other Court cases in the shortest possible time.’
The Committee’s report dated 16 October 2023 attended to the technical aspects of the matter, and concluded by stating that ‘We can also frame the Rules or SOPs to be followed’ with regard to live streaming, but this has not yet been done.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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