Daily Times

The government has shown complete lack of preparedness and incompetence in two cases pending before the Supreme Court (SC): the NRO and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto reference. The SC has issued show cause notices to the solicitor general of the ministry of law and justice and advocate on record for their failure to represent the federation in the NRO review case. The NRO case is a hot potato, given high profile persons’ involvement, and no government lawyer seems willing to touch it. The government, on its part, failed to entrust the responsibility for presenting its case before the court to someone who could prepare it thoroughly and take it to its logical conclusion. Therefore, the court’s anger is not misplaced. It was so irritated at the government lawyers’ reluctance to appear before it that it went so far as to suggest that the prime minister should then represent the government in court. The government is acting like a pigeon that closes its eyes on seeing an approaching cat.The second case concerns the reference moved by the president for reopening of Bhutto’s trial case. Here again the government’s ineptitude is evident. Although the PPP created great hype around this issue, including the resignation of federal law minister Babar Awan, it failed to frame the questions of law to be dealt with by the SC. Despite its sympathetic attitude in this case, the SC is unable to proceed because the reference sent by the president has several lacunae. The SC has suggested that the president send the reference again after reframing it. Should this not have been done ab initio? It is time the government stopped pretending the SC, which is bound by the law and the constitution, is its enemy and faced its own incompetence. *