Govt Plans To Set Up Gas Utility Court.

The government has planned to amend a gas theft and recovery law to introduce gas utility courts and delegate federal government powers to prime minister for taking action against people involved in gas theft and delay in recovery of consumer bills.

The government would make amendments to the Gas (Theft Control and Recovery) Act 2016. Under the amendments, it will establish gas utility courts.

The federal government may consult the relevant High Court chief justice, and through a notification in the official Gazette, establish as many utility courts in a district as it may deem necessary.

The government will appoint a judge to each such court from amongst the district and sessions judges in the district. District and sessions judges will include additional district and sessions judges as well.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment in the Mustafa Impex case, interpreted the term 'federal government' and declared that the federal government under the Constitution of Pakistan 1973 meant the prime minister and federal ministers.

This necessarily implies that any authority/ power conferred upon the federal government by an Act of parliament or delegated legislation must be exercised by the prime minister and federal ministers as a whole.

In the wake of the court judgement, the Cabinet Division on November 26, 2018 conveyed that the cabinet, in its meeting held on September 3, 2017, decided that all ministries and divisions should, in consultation with the Law and Justice Division, make amendments to the respective Acts/ rules and replace the words 'federal government' with 'an appropriate authority(ies)'.

In Section 3 of the Gas (Theft Control and Recovery) Act 2016, the words 'federal government' has been used. Therefore, in light of the federal cabinet decision, this statute needs to be amended by way of substituting 'federal government' for 'an appropriate authority'.

Accordingly, the Law and Justice Division, in a letter on November 17, 2020, furnished a draft law titled 'Gas (Theft Control and Recovery) (Amendment) Act 2020' to substitute 'federal government' for the words 'prime minister' so that...