By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD, April 13 (Reuters) - Pakistan's government on
Thursday rejected a panel set up and headed by the chief justice
that is due to rule on a draft law clipping his powers, claiming
conflict of interest, the latest standoff amid months of
economic and political turmoil.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government is involved in a
row with the Supreme Court over the holding of snap polls in two
provinces where former leader Imran Khan had dissolved the local
governments this year in a bid to force early elections.
The government says it is not economically viable to hold
snap elections first ahead of a general election due in October.
Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Wednesday set up a panel
of eight judges, to be headed by himself, that on Thursday
started discussing the draft law, according to the court's cause
list.
The draft law, which has been passed by parliament and sent
to the president for assent, cuts down the chief justice's
powers to constitute panels, hear appeals or assign cases to
judges in his team, according to a copy of the bill.
"We reject this panel," Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar,
flanked by all of the government's coalition partners, told a
news conference in Islamabad. "We expect that this panel will be
dissolved today."
Tarar said there was clear conflict of interest and called
on the chief justice to quit.
A parliamentary finance committee on Thursday rejected a
bill to issue 21 billion rupees ($73.87 million) in funds for
the snap polls, Sharif's aide, Ata Tarar, said.
The chief justice has summoned government finance officials
to his chamber on Friday to seek a reply on the funds, warning
that non-compliance would have consequences.
The row between the government and the judiciary comes amid
economic turmoil, with record inflation and an acute balance of
payments crisis, while talks with the IMF to secure $1.1 billion
funding as part of a $6.5 billion bailout agreed to in 2019 have
not yet yielded fruit.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad)
