Pak govt, judiciary in new standoff

Pakistan's government yesterday rejected a panel set up and headed by the chief justice that is due to rule on a draft law clipping his powers, claiming conflict of interest, the latest standoff amid months of economic and political turmoil.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government is involved in a row with the Supreme Court over the holding of snap polls in two provinces where former leader Imran Khan had dissolved the local governments this year in a bid to force early elections.

The government says it is not economically viable to hold snap elections first ahead of a general election due in October. Chief Justice (CJ) Umar Ata Bandial on Wednesday set up a panel of eight judges, to be headed by himself, that yesterday started discussing the draft law, according to the court's cause list.

The draft law, which has been passed by parliament and sent to the president for assent, cuts down the chief justice's powers to constitute panels, hear appeals or assign cases to judges in his team, according to a copy of the bill. "We reject this panel," Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, flanked by all of the government's coalition partners, told a news conference in Islamabad.