ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench was expanded to 13 members when the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Friday added five more judges to its strength.

Presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, the commission decided by majority of its total membership the nomination of Justice Hashim Khan Kakar, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar, Jus­tice Shakeel Ahmad, Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim.

The CB earlier comprised Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A. Malik, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Musarrat Hilali, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan.

Legal observers believe that with the extension of more judges in the constitutional bench, it is likely that the review petition moved against the July 12, 2024 judgement in the reserved seats case may be taken up.

PTI opposes CB head’s authority for nomination, insists on determining criteria for appointments

In its judgement, the majority members of the 13-judge full bench had declared the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf eligible to receive reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the assemblies and allowed the 41 members who contested the general election as independent candidates to approach the ECP within 15 days and demonstrate their party affiliation before officially joining the PTI.

The JCP held three separate sessions during its Friday meeting at the conference room of the SC building. The first session was held to consider the nominations for the appointment of additional judges from Punjab’s district judiciary (Lahore High Court), whereas the second session considered nominations of more judges to the constitutional bench of the Sindh High Court while the third sitting was held to consider nomination of more judges for the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court.

Also, CJP Afridi decided to constitute committees for setting criteria for the appointment of judges to all high courts and for the nomination of judges for constitutional benches of superior courts.

While a majority of JCP members approved the inclusion of five more judges to the SC’s constitutional bench, some senior members namely Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar opposed it. Likewise, PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan and Senator Syed Ali Zafar also followed suit as they insisted to first determine a procedure for adding more judges to the constitutional bench.

As the suggestion to include five more judges to the constitutional bench was given by Justice Aminuddin Khan who headed the bench, the PTI representatives on the commission argued that the head of the constitutional bench should not have the authority to decide which judge should be made part of the bench rather all SC judges should be included in the constitutional bench.

At the meeting, the JCP also nominated three judges to the Sindh High Court’s constitutional bench namely Justice Riazat Ali Sahar, Justice Abdul Hamid Bhurgri and Justice Nisar Ahmad Bhanbhro.

At the JCP meeting, District and Sessions Judges Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Tanveer Ahmad Sheikh, Tariq Mahmood Bajwa and Abher Gul Khan were nominated for the position of Lahore High Court’s additional judges.

The commission unanimously decided that the nominees who did not secure the required majority support from JCP members for the approval of their nominations this time may be re-nominated for future vacancies.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025