[Reader-list] PK: NJC scuttles move to restore district magistracy

[yasir ~يا سر]

fwd



 This is a very positive development.

NJC scuttles move to restore district magistracy
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=22234
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: The civil bureaucracy-prompted federal and provincial
governments’ move to revert to the defunct system of district magistracy has
been scuttled
by the National Judicial Committee’s resolve to completely separate the
judiciary from the executive.

After the NJC approved the policy that no judge or judicial official would
serve under the executive and even would not be involved in the election
process,
the efforts to revert to the old system of executive magistracy where
executive officers enjoyed judicial powers might not succeed.

Sources in the National Reconstruction Bureau confirm provinces are eager to
get rid of the district government system introduced by Gen Musharraf, who
had abolished the institution of district magistracy, with the exception of
the federal capital, while introducing devolution plan that was seen as a
silent
revolution but failed because it further politicised the district
bureaucracy and made the civil servants dance to the tunes of district
Nazim.

In view of the failings of the devolution plan, the bureaucracy that was
jolted with the abolition of the office of district magistrate (also known
as deputy
commissioner) had convinced the political leadership in the provinces and
also at the federal level to undo Musharraf’s devolution plan altogether.

However, now it is feared that reversion to the old system and empowering
the executive with the judicial powers would be struck down by the judiciary
as
it would not only be the violation of the Constitution but also in breach of
the Supreme Court’s orders.

The Constitution of Pakistan envisages separation of the executive from the
judiciary in its Article 175 (3), which says: “Judiciary shall be separated
from executive within fourteen years from the commencing day.” It may be
highlighted that originally parliament envisaged a period of three years in
the
1973 Constitution for the separation of judiciary from the executive. The
bureaucracy then again manipulated and managed to circumvent the
constitutional
proviso of three years and it was substituted by five years through the
Constitutional (5th Amendment) Act 1976 (Act LXII of 1976). Again there were
long
debates in 1976 and the lawyers’ community demanded separation of the
judiciary from the executive. Once gain bureaucrats influenced the then
dictator
Ziaul Haq to amend the Constitution and the same provision was amended and
replaced by 14 years by the president’s order No XIV of 1985. But it was not
done even after the lapse of 14 years.

Finally, it was again the Supreme Court of Pakistan which in 1998 had to
intervene and give decision (Mehran Ali versus Federation of Pakistan, PLD
1998,
SC 1445) that the executive be separated from the judiciary within six
months. The executive bureaucracy implemented the decision half-heartedly
but finally
in 2001 the system of executive magistrates was abolished from the Criminal
Procedure Code (CrPC).

Before 1996, the deputy commissioner, an executive bureaucrat, could arrest
the accused and give him capital punishment.A few months before the
restoration,
the National Reconstruction Bureau proposed a complete reversal of the
Musharraf’s devolution plan and police reforms.

While the Constitution envisages separation of the judiciary from the
executive, the NRB suggested revival of the magistracy to the extent where
the revenue
officials would be vested with judicial powers and could award punishment up
to three years under certain laws.

Already all the provinces with the exception of Sindh have restored the
office of commissioner and the federal and provincial governments are
thinking of
reverting to the system of district magistracy.

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