ISLAMABAD: The first formal meeting of the National Assembly’s special committee to “prepare and forward” references against Supreme Court judges to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) over their alleged misconduct will be held at Parliament House on Tuesday (June 13).

According to the National Assembly Secretariat, the five-member committee would discuss the possibilities of filing references under Article 209 of the Constitution “on the ground of misconduct as discussed in the National Assembly and on such other grounds which are available against any judge or judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

Overall, this will be the second meeting of the special committee as in their first meeting held last week the members had elected Mohsin Nawaz Ranjha of the ruling PML-N as the committee’s chairman.

The National Assembly had on May 15 approved the formation of the special house committee to “prepare and forward” references against SC judges on a motion that had been moved by Shazia Sobia Soomro of the PPP after a number of lawmakers, including key ministers, in their hard-hitting speeches called for action against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and other “like-minded judges” for allegedly “facilitating” PTI Chairman Imran Khan by providing a blanket relief to him in the form of bail in all the cases last month.

Besides Mr Ranjha, the committee comprises Khursheed Junejo of the PPP, Shehnaz Baloch of Balochistan Awami Party, Salahuddin of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Salahuddin Ayubi of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F).

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was also present in the house for a significant time when the members delivered fiery speeches against the judiciary, criticising it for validating every military takeover in the past and for allegedly becoming a tool at the hands of the establishment.

Later, during the joint sitting of parliament the same evening, which had been called for some legislative work, the lawmakers had again targeted the judiciary.

The lower house of the parliament had approved the motion for the formation of the special committee after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif urged Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf to suspend the normal business to allow the members to debate on the events that took place after the arrest of the PTI chief on May 9 and his immediate release due to “unprecedented” SC’s intervention.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2023