The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday reserved its judgment on maintainability of a case regarding provision of information of the employees of Supreme Court (SC) under Right of Access to Information Act 2017.
IHC’s Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case challenging the decision of Information Commission of Pakistan (ICP) regarding the above matter. Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Javed appeared before the court.
At the outset of hearing, the applicant said as a citizen of Pakistan he needed the information of SC’s employees.
On the query of bench, the AGP said the Ministry of Law and Justice was concerned ministry which used to issue notifications about the top court. The attorney general said the law ministry had filed this petition after taking approval from the SC registrar.
The court asked whether the full bench of the top court had given approval for the said case. To this the AGP said he could not ask it from the registrar.
The court remarked that Senate and National Assembly were also constitutional institutions and their information also could not be made public. At this, the AGP said there was no such thing about Parliament in law.
The AGP said the information commission had given orders for the provision of information and SC registrar had challenged it before the IHC. The court noted that the citizen had demanded information about the registrar office instead of the SC, adding that there was a difference between both. The AGP said the applicant had sought information about the SC. After listening arguments, the court reserved judgment on maintainability of the case.
