- Justice Mandokhel and Justice Mazhar attended the committee meeting.
- A meeting to discuss matters related to the constitutional body.
- SC says Justice Aisha will not be available on November 14 and 15.
ISLAMABAD: The recently enacted constitutional bench, constituted under the 26th Amendment, will start hearing cases from November 14, according to a statement issued by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The decision was taken during a meeting of a three-member committee — constituted under Article 191A(4) of the Constitution — headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, who is also the Chairman of the seven-judge Constitution Bench.
On November 5, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan appointed Justice Aminuddin – who ranks fourth in seniority among Supreme Court judges – as Chairman of the seven-judge Constitutional Bench by a vote of seven to five, along with the Chief Justice. Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi is among the dissenting members.
Today’s meeting was attended by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, who participated via telephone call from Karachi.
According to a press release – a copy of which is available Geographic NewsThe purpose of the meeting was to discuss matters related to the formation of the constitutional body.
During the meeting, the Office of the Registrar briefed the Committee on the outstanding issues falling within the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Body.
“After extensive consideration, the committee decided to give priority to the oldest cases,” the statement read.
Moreover, it said that Justice Ayesha Malik will not be available on November 14 and 15, and “a bench comprising all available judges will be constituted to continue hearing cases on these two dates.” The Office of the Registrar of the High Court has been directed to list these cases accordingly for hearing before the bench.
The bench will include Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Musarat Hilali, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
The next meeting of the committee will be held on November 13 at 12:30 pm after Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar arrives in Islamabad.
A day earlier, the Supreme Court had formed a three-judge committee to fix cases, issue court lists, constitute tribunals and determine the weekly caseload for its newly created constitutional bench.
It was also decided to conduct colour-coding of cases, which clearly fall within the purview of Article 191A of the Constitution, and Chief Research Officer Mazhar Ali Khan was entrusted with the task of examining cases arising under Article 199 of the Constitution. .