Role of High Court in Pakistan

Third, Supreme Court justices are recruited primarily from advocacy in which the legal culture has increasingly avoided procedural restriction and fostered confrontation with executive leaders, whether elected or military. During the democratic decade of the 1990s, when political parties were weakly institutionalized and inter-institutional conflicts were the norm, the fragmented political landscape and the growing importance of the courts as venues for administering political disputes generated a perception among judges and lawyers of the limited legitimacy of the state`s political leadership and the potential of the judiciary. to shape national policies and policies. This combination – new judicial discretion, separation of executive and judiciary, condemnation of politics, and changing legal culture – has helped steer the judiciary in a more ambitious and adversarial direction. The High Court exercises two types of supervisory powers, judicial and administrative. The High Court supervises and controls all courts subordinate to it. This judicial review is exercised over the processing and review of appeals and reviews of orders/judgements of courts subordinate to the High Court. In its administrative oversight powers, the High Court has, among other things, Until 2021, the military leadership`s relationship with Khan deteriorated, giving opposition parties the opportunity to defend themselves against the PTI and leading to Parliament`s vote of no confidence against Khan in April 2022. When Khan tried to block this vote, it was obvious that the military was not siding with the PTI, but there were fears that several judges involved in the decisions that helped bring the PTI to power could still rule in favor of the PTI. Khan`s defense of blocking the parliamentary vote rested on shaky legal foundations, including charges of foreign conspiracy, restrictions on the judiciary interfering in parliamentary affairs, and the need to allow elections in the so-called national interest. But the guardianship court was not inclined to accept restrictions on its prerogative to intervene in parliamentary affairs. And, given that the charge of foreign conspiracy remained unfounded and there was a broad legal consensus that Khan`s actions amounted to an attack on the constitutional order, a ruling in Khan`s favor would have further damaged the court`s legitimacy in the legal community. Lawyers and several judges urged the chief justice to take note of Khan`s actions.

The reopening of the court at midnight on the night of the vote on the Supreme Court Bar Association`s opinion was intended to demonstrate the court`s strength in upholding the recalcitrant PTI. But he convinced PTI supporters of legal bias. The attitude of the judiciary towards the political interventions of the military and its interference in the civilian executive and legislative branches are the essential elements of its jurisprudential strategy aimed at playing the role of legitimate intervening authority of the country. He adopted the military`s self-serving anti-corruption rhetoric and used the support of the constitution and the population to legitimize himself in this role. The courts` tactics, combined with their more flexible approach to the military, left democracy unconsolidated and, after 2017, weakened the system of elected government and facilitated the military`s return to political supremacy – to the detriment of democracy and the independence of the judiciary. Subject to sections 203d and 203f, any decision of the Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction under this Chapter shall be binding on a High Court and any jurisdiction subject to a High Court. Subject to Article 203f, no court, including the Supreme Court and a Supreme Court, may conduct proceedings or exercise powers or jurisdiction with respect to matters within the jurisdiction of the Court. A superior court cannot make an “order” to another superior court with coordinated jurisdiction, nor can such a court issue an injunction against it. This rule is based on the fact that the injunctions provided for in this section are intended to correct errors in the exercise of extraordinary jurisdiction or to correct errors and, since superior courts are entitled to be held liable by other courts for acting within their own jurisdiction, the question of making an application to them would not arise. Although a Supreme Court judge who acts as a member of the Election Commission for the resolution of certain electoral disputes does not act as a judge of the Supreme Court but as a designated person, the Supreme Court concluded that issuing an injunction to such a member would create an “aspect of ridicule” and would preclude the “significant” consideration of the “need to maintain a high level of accommodation”. unter den Richter superiorer gerichten”. First, a combination of constitutional articles and legal innovations has allowed the judiciary to intervene in the actions of other branches of government.

The 1973 constitution extended the supervisory powers of the judiciary. The Constitution gave the Supreme Courts the power to enforce fundamental rights by State institutions. The Supreme Court can now also rule on matters of “public importance” with regard to the application of fundamental rights. Public interest litigation began in the late 1980s and evolved significantly after 2006, becoming a tool through which the Court intervened in the executive and legislative branches on behalf of the public interest.