- JCP records reveal that the Minister of Justice requested to postpone the meeting.
- Chief Justice Isa says he wanted the JCP meeting to go ahead.
- The meeting was postponed out of deference to the wishes of the majority, he says.
For several days, rumours have been circulating that Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa has postponed the meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) in May to “facilitate the government’s judicial package” which also envisages increasing the retirement age of judges to give “extension” to the top judge of the Supreme Court.
The reality, however, may differ from the speculations circulating on various digital media platforms, as claimed by Reema Omer, a legal expert and lawyer, who has debunked the purported reports in light of the minutes of the JCP meeting as well as a letter written by the top judge.
It should be noted that the federal government has, on multiple occasions, refuted any plans to grant an extension to the Chief Justice, who is set to retire next month (October).
On his social media account X, formerly Twitter, Omer referred to the minutes of the JCP meeting which revealed the adjournment of the session at the request of the Federal Minister of Justice, who had requested the forum to adjourn it as the government was considering “amending Article 175A of the Constitution” as “the constitution of the Commission can be changed.”
Furthermore, according to the lawyer, the file indicated that Judge Yahya Afridi had then suggested that the debate on the agenda be postponed and the meeting be postponed in light of the current government's intention to propose amendments to the Constitution, a suggestion that was agreed to by all members.
In addition to the record of the JCP meeting, the legal expert also elaborates on the letter written by CJP Isa on August 28, to the presidents of the four high courts, in which the apex judge said that he had indeed wanted the JCP meeting to take place, but that it was “postponed in deference to the wishes of the majority.”
“The Rules of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan were promulgated in 2010 and in response to the persistent demand of the Bar Councils and Bar Associations to make the nomination process transparent and democratic, I constituted a committee to propose amendments to the said Rules.
“The committee concerned submitted its report and a meeting was convened on May 3, 2024 to consider its recommendations. I wanted the meeting to take place, however, the meeting was postponed out of deference to the wishes of the majority. To consider the recommendations of the committee, a meeting has been convened again,” the Chief Justice said.
In his letter, the chief justice requested the chief justices of the high courts to begin their search for potential candidates to be nominated as additional judges of their respective courts.
Henceforth, it appears that the rumours regarding the reason for the postponement of the JCP meeting are in direct contrast to the facts reflected in the minutes of the meeting along with the letter from the CJP which reveals that the meeting was postponed at the request of the Law Minister and at the suggestion of Justice Afridi.
It should be noted that the extension rumours were further exacerbated after a bill was introduced in the Senate on Monday seeking to amend the Supreme Court Judges Act of 1997 to increase the number of Supreme Court judges to 20 (in addition to the president) to “address the increasing backlog of cases”.
The bill titled “Supreme Court Judges (Amendment) Bill”, 2024, was introduced by an independent senator from Balochistan, Mohammad Abdul Qadir, seeking to increase the number of high court judges from 17 to 21.
A day earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MP Daniyal Chaudhry introduced a similar bill in the National Assembly calling for increasing the number of judges to 23, a proposal strongly opposed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The bill was eventually deferred in the Lower House after the Speaker, following the argument of PTI chairman Advocate Gohar Khan that such a bill could not be introduced as a private member's bill as it involved expenditure from the Federal Consolidated Fund which could only be introduced by the government under Articles 74 and 81 of the Constitution, Law Minister Tarar did so, The News reported on Wednesday.
Speaking at an event in Islamabad on Monday, Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the CJP “has clearly told me and the attorney general that it does not want an extension.”
