New law to curtail CJ’s powers passed

Pakistan's parliament has passed a new law to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court's chief justice, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said yesterday, a move that comes amid a row between the higher judiciary and the government. Tarar had introduced the bill in the lower house of the parliament on Wednesday and it was passed by the senate, or upper house, on Thursday. "The parliament has passed the bill," Tarar told reporters yesterday. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government is currently 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 earlier this year in a bid to force early elections.