ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission (JC) has constituted a special five-member committee under senior puisne judge Justice Mian Saqib Nisar to consider the demand of the Pakistan Bar Council to amend the Judicial Commission Rules, 2010.

Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali, Yasin Azad who represents the PBC in the JC, Punjab Bar Council representative Javed Hashmi and retired Justice Javed Iqbal are other members of the committee.

The commission is expected to take up the recommendations of the committee after Eid.

In its first meeting on Nov 6, 2010, the JC approved the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s Rules, 2010, with then chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry describing it as something that would herald the change of system of appointment of judges in the light of parliament’s decision articulated through the 18th Amendment.

But the rules became controversial and subject of intense criticism by bar associations which believed that the rules had given blanket powers to the chairman of the commission by rendering the entire exercise of appointing superior court judges a meaningless one.

Subsequently, in its 200th meeting on March 9, 2013, the council suggested amendments to JC rules 2, 3, 6 and 8. The proposed amendments recommended to have purposeful and meaningful consultation, the representative of the PBC should be taken into confidence before the initiation and sending of the proposed names to the commission by the chief justice or the chief justices of high courts.

Similarly, the decision to relax any rules should be decided by the entire commission in the public interest, and not by the chairman alone.

The PBC is of the view that any member of the commission should have the right to propose names for the appointment of judges at a meeting of the commission.

Even the PBC’s executive body had observed in a resolution that the participation of the council in the appointment, confirmation, or non-confirmation of judges of the superior courts was inadequate and had stressed the need for holding appropriate consultation with its representatives.

The Parliamentary Committee, which confirms the recommendations of the JC, has not been holding meetings since October 2015, protesting that it was being forced to ‘rubber stamp’ decisions taken by the commission.

Meanwhile, the JC has approved nomination of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah as new chief justice of the Lahore High Court and the elevation of LHC’s incumbent Chief Justice Ijazul Ahsan as a judge of the Supreme Court.

The JC also recommended District and Sessions Judge Rasheed Ahmed Soomro, Advocates Arshed Hussain Khan, Masood Khan, Saleem Jessar, Abdul Hamid Barakzai, Hamayoon Khan and Sarfaraz Akhund as Sindh High Court’s additional judges.

Suo motu

Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali has taken a suo motu notice of a report submitted through the registrar of the Balochistan High Court regarding poor condition of Sandeman Provincial Hospital, Quetta, and the facilities being provided to the patients there.

The chief justice ordered the court office to fix the case on Tuesday before the bench to be presided over by him with notice to the attorney general and Balochistan’s advocate general and health secretary.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2016