ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial constituted three more committees on Saturday to take up different appeals by litigants in judge’s chambers, according to a circular issued on Saturday.

The CJP will head the first committee, which will take up appeals moved by litigants against the registrar’s order of returning petitions, etc and then order placing the same before the five most senior judges of the apex court.

It is a common practice of the court office to sometimes return petitions by raising objections like questioning why the petitioner has approached the apex court directly without exhausting other available forums first.

Such rejections are usually challenged by the petitioners and are taken up by a judge in his chamber as nominated by the CJP.

Similarly, matters regarding applications for withdrawing petitions will also be placed before the chief justice.

The second committee will be headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah to deal with tax issues.

Justice Yahya Afridi will be head the third Com­mittee to deal with applications for amendment to petitions, appeals or applications for setting aside any ex parte orders and application for deleting or adding parties in the petitions.

Earlier, the Supreme Court appointed Justice Ijazul Ahsan as a chairman, administrative in-charge or monitoring judge of 12 different committees.

Under the earlier circular, Justice Ahsan was appointed as the chairmen of the disciplinary committee of the Pakistan Bar Council, IT affairs and departmental selection committees as well as the monitoring judge of different anti-terrorism courts.

Justice Ahsan will also be a member of the Federal Judicial Academy.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2022