ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa has started the process to revise the criteria for appointing judges to superior courts.

The CJP has written letters to 28 members of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) — the constitutional body which recommends judges to be inducted into Supreme and high courts — seeking suggestions “to develop updated criteria” for the appointments, a source privy to the development told Dawn.

In the correspondence, the CJP sought cooperation from all stakeholders to improve the commission’s functioning regarding the appointment of judges from district courts to high courts.

Currently, judges are inducted into the apex court according to the criteria devised during the time of former CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Talking to Dawn, senior lawyer Akhtar Hussain said he believed that the rules-making committee should be constituted and headed by the senior-most judge of the court and not the CJP.

Besides, rules should be amended before the next meeting of the commission is called to take up cases for fresh appointments, particularly to the high court, said the lawyer, who represents the Pakistan Bar Council in JCP.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2023