- Original jurisdiction of Supreme Court.-(3) Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 199, the Supreme Court shall, if it considers that a question of public importance with reference to the enforcement of any of the Fundamental Rights conferred by Chapter I of Part II is involved, have the power to make an order of the nature mentioned in the said Article.
This is the law which the Supreme Court of Pakistan uses when getting itself involved in matters of commerce, politics, defense and nowadays Covid-19.
The scope of this law is realistically supposed to be very very limited. The Supreme Court can only use this law when any of the fundamental rights of citizens are at stake. Fundamental Rights under the Constitution of Pakistan are not something unique to Pakistan, they are pretty much the same as are provided under the constitutions of other countries such as security, education, religion, freedom of speech, right to fair trial.
The fact then that the Supreme Court brings matters of commerce, contracts and business deals within the ambit of fundamental rights is then has little to do with the following of law and more to do with political decisions.
It is important that the Supreme Court uses Article 184 (3) for the enforcement of fundamental rights only and takes a step back from arbitrarily using this power for political decisions or those involving matters of business deals and commerce.
