June 19, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 18: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition against the government’s move to enhance the strength of the Supreme Court judges from 16 to 29 through the finance bill recently presented in the National Assembly.

The Single Bench of Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam rejected the petition on the grounds that it was premature because only a proposal had been made in the bill.

Petitioner Azhar Maqbool pleaded that enhancing the strength of Supreme Court judges through a finance bill would end the role of both the presidency and the Senate. The government had tabled the proposal in the National Assembly because it lacked majority in the upper house of the parliament, the petition said.

A section of the Finance Bill tabled in the house by the PPP-led coalition government after the announcement of the budget says: “In the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1997 (XXXIII of 1997), in section 2, for the words ‘be sixteen’ the words ‘not more than twenty-nine’ shall be substituted and shall be deemed always to have been so substituted on the 3rd of November, 2007.”