ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Judges (PCAJ) has finalised a bill that will give complete authority to parliament to appoint superior court judges instead of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP).

“The bill has been finalised and it may soon be presented by the government in parliament,” Senator Farooq Naek, who is head of a subcommittee of the PCAJ, told Dawn. He said his committee had completed its report and handed it over to the law minister a couple of months ago.

“The committee has unanimously approved the draft bill and urged the government to present it as a government bill so that it can be passed smoothly,” he said.

Mr Naek said the lawyers’ community had serious reservations over the present modus operandi and wanted all stakeholders, including the government, president, prime minister, judiciary and bars, on board over appointment of judges of superior courts.

At present the CJP enjoys complete authority in the appointment of judges as he nominates new judges and sends their names to the president through the Prime Minister Office for his final nod.

The Pakistan Peoples Party had, under the 18th Amendment, given complete authority to parliament to appoint judges, but the Nawaz Sharif government had, under the 19th Amendment in 2013, given that authority to then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to please him. After that Justice Iftikhar had appointed 108 judges of superior courts.

When contacted, Law Minister Zahid Hamid confirmed that the committee had finalised the draft bill and handed it over to him, but he gave an impression that the government was not in a mood to introduce it in the near future.

The sources said the decision to change the process of judges’ appointment had been taken at a meeting of senior leaders of the PML-N called by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif in London on Sept 24.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2017