Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi has summoned the meeting for the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Tuesday (November 5) to discuss the “nomination of judges for constitutional benches in the Supreme Court (SC)”, a notification issued by the JCP today said.
The JCP is responsible for nominating judges for constitutional benches in the SC and high courts, as per the new Article 191A recently introduced in the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
The amendment to Article 175A of the Constitution reconstituted the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) with the inclusion of four members of parliament — two each from the treasury and opposition, one from the National Assembly and the other from the Senate.
Earlier, the committee consisted of five SC judges (including the CJP as its chairman), the Attorney General for Pakistan, the federal law minister, a former chief justice and a senior advocate nominated by the Pakistan Bar Council.
The amendment also empowered the JCP to evolve criteria for assessment, evaluation and fitness for appointment of judges. If a high court judge’s performance is deemed “inefficient,” an improvement period will be granted. If the judge fails to improve, a report will be submitted by the JCP to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), which is the forum with the authority to remove judges over misconduct.
PTI announced joining the JCP following a special meeting of the party’s political committee Sunday night while the party continued to criticise the amendment.
PTI lawmaker Asad Qaiser had lambasted the amendment in the National Assembly session, saying the amendment was approved in an “unethical and illegal way
However, the party finalised the names of the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan and Senator Shibli Faraz to become members of the JCP which would make recommendations for the appointment of judges.
According to a notification issued by the JCP today, the meeting for its first session following the Constitutional Amendment will begin at 2pm on Tuesday.
The meeting in the SC will discuss the “establishment of the secretariat of the commission”, the “nomination of judges for constitutional benches in the SC” and any other agenda with the chair’s permission, the notification said.
The meeting invited the CJP, senior puisne Judge Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Senator Farooq H. Naek, member of the National Assembly Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, former senator Roshan Khursheed Bharucha, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, senior SC advocate Akhtar Hussain, Senator Faraz, and MNA Omer, the notification said.
