ISLAMABAD: The 12-member Special Parliamentary Committee, which was formed for the first time in the country’s history to appoint the Chief Justice of Pakistan, held its first round of meeting at Parliament House on Tuesday.
The closed session of the parliamentary committee, consisting of members of the government and the opposition, was held in Hall No. 5 of the Parliament building.
However, members belonging to the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittihad Council (SIC) party were absent from the meeting, prompting the committee members to meet again later tonight at 8:30 pm.
The government is racing against time to appoint a new chief justice, with current Justice and Development Party (PJD) chief Qazi Faiz Issa set to retire on October 25. Under the previous law, the current PJD chief would have been automatically replaced by the principal judge – Justice Mansoor Ali Shah. .
However, the method was changed after the controversial 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed.
Under the amendments to Clause 3 of Article 175A, the Chief Justice will now be appointed “on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from among the three most senior Judges of the Supreme Court” by a two-thirds majority.
After Justice Shah, the next two senior judges were Justice Muneeb Akhtar and Justice Yahya Afridi.
The committee consists of Senators Azam Nazir Tarar of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), Farooq Naik of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Syed Ali Zafar of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Kamran Murtaza of the Jamiat-ul-Ulama. Islam e-Fadl (JUI-F).
Meanwhile, the PML-N members of the National Alliance include Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Shaista Parvez. Rana Ansar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Syed Naveed Qamar and Raja Pervez Ashraf of the PPP, and lawyer Gohar Ali Khan and Sahibzada Hamid Raza of the Sunni Confederation Council (SIC).
It should be noted that the process of appointing the new Chief Justice should be completed in the next three days as the current Chief Justice Issa will retire on October 25.
In accordance with paragraph 3c of Article 175A, the Commission shall, by a majority of not less than two-thirds of its total members, within 14 days before the retirement of the CJP, transmit the nomination. However, the first nomination under Clause 3 after the commencement of the Constitution Act (XXVI) 2024 will be sent within three days before the retirement of the Chief Justice.
However, clause (3) of Article 175A also stated that if the nominee is rejected from among the three senior judges, the nomination of the remaining judges from among the three senior judges will be considered.
This is a developing story and will be updated with more details.