Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar-led Supreme Court has almost given up unannounced the exercise of its suo motu powers - enforcement of fundamental rights with reference to matters of public importance. Just two such cases, both relating to the apex court itself, are known to have been taken up by it in the last eight months. One of them agitated a program aired on Geo television while the other ordered the registration of a FIR (first information report) with police against demonstrators, carrying high critical banners against Justice Dogar, who protested in front of the Supreme Court, against the post-Nov 3, 2007 judiciary. Since Nov 3, 2007 when Justice Dogar took over as the chief judge after the promulgation of the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), the Supreme Court has not taken up even a single other case on its own or proceeded on a petition sponsored by someone else to enforce fundamental rights. “There was a time while Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry headed the apex court when he would daily issue orders on nearly 400 applications submitted by ordinary citizens with the human rights cell of the Supreme Court,” his spokesman Athar Minallah told this correspondent. __
