ISLAMABAD: The Pak­istan Bar Council (PBC) is pondering convening a conference to chalk out proposals about what it calls bringing transparency in the process of appointment of judges in the superior judiciary, a process that has become a sticking point for the last many years.

A meeting of the PBC’s Special Committee on Judiciary and Electoral Reforms held on March 21 decided to invite the Judicial Commission (JC) — a constitutional body that appoints superior court judges — members who represent different bars.

The meeting also decided to invite former representatives of the PBC Khalid Ranjha, Yasin Azad, incumbent member Yousuf Leghari and the representatives of the provincial bar councils to help the committee understand how they had been participating in the process and formulate proposals for introducing transparency in the process of judicial appointments.

The proposals so finalised will be placed before the PBC for passing a resolution and taking necessary action. The committee will finalise the date for the conference in the next meeting to be held in early April.

Regarding effectiveness of judicial accountability, the committee decided to propose and circulate amongst all members of the PBC a draft of a constitutional petition to be filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of the PBC seeking disclosure of information regarding total number of complaints / reference filed before the JC and decided by it.

The petition will also ask on how many complaints the commission has issued show-cause notices against judges and how many judges have retired while complaints against them was pending, and call for expeditious disposal of all complaints pending with the JC.

Regarding effective acco­untability of the judges of the lower courts, Syed Amjad Shah, a member, proposed that committees be formed in all provinces and Islamabad coordinate with high courts and ensure expeditious decisions on all complaints filed against judges of the subordinate judiciary.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2018