SC blocks Hisba Bill enactment
By Makhdoom Babar

ISLAMABAD—A five member-bench of the Supreme Court Friday granted stay orders against Hisba Bill passed by the NWFP assembly, after hearing arguments on a presidential reference.
It issued notices to the provincial government, Speaker of the NWFP Assembly and Advocate General and adjourned the hearing for third week of January. The reference was filed by the President under Article 186 of the Constitution against the enactment of Hisba Bill-2006 passed by the NWFP assembly on November 12 at the initiative of the provincial government of Muttahida Majli-e-Amal.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Saiyed Ashhad heard the arguments of the Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan. The Attorney General was assisted by advocates by Faisal Naqvi and Khurram Hashmi. The presidential reference, filed on December 14, has raised eleven questions about the Hisba Bill.
In a short order granting the stay order the bench said that the Hisba Bill-2006 “shall not be enacted or deemed to enacted into an Act of the NWFP.” In his submission, the Attorney General said that the Hisba Bill-2006 was unconstitutional for the same reasons as those given by the Supreme Court in its earlier opinion regarding the Hisba Bill-2005 in Presidential Reference No 2 of 2005.
In that reference, the Supreme Court had found the Hisba Bill 2005 to be “Vague, over-broad, unreasonable, based on excessive delegation of jurisdiction, denying the right of access to justice to citizens and attempting to set up a parallel judicial system”. The Attorney General said as in the case of the Hisba Bill 2005, the Hisba Mohtasibs were authorized under the Hisba Bill 2006 to issue “Hukum Namas” to executive officials, which orders were backed up by ta Hisba Police and the powers to initiate contempt proceedings. He argued that the Hisba Bill 2006 would create a parallel judicial system in violation of Article 175 of the Constitution.
The Attorney General also noted that the Hisba Bill 2006 still contained penal provisions which were defined in unacceptably vague terms in violation of the earlier opinion of the Supreme Court. The Attorney General further submitted that in its earlier judgment, the Supreme Court had declared the Zila Mohtasib’s office as created under the Hisba Bill 2005 to be unconstitutional as there was already a provision for such an office under the NWFP Local Government Ordinance, 2001, but that no amendment had been made in the Hisba Bill 2006.
In addition, the Attorney General noted that the concurring opinion in the earlier reference had declared the definition of “Aalim” in the Hisba Bill 2005 to be arbitrary and unconstitutional but that definition had not been changed in the new Hisba Bill. INP Adds: Supreme Court of Pakistan Friday stayed Hisba Bill, 2006, passed by the NWFP Assembly, from being enact, or being deemed to be enacted into an Act of the NWFP.