Sanaullah claims PTI sabotaged Justice Mansoor's path to CJP

Rana Sanaullah, Prime Minister's Adviser on Political and Public Affairs and a PML-N leader, stated that the newly passed 26th Constitutional Amendment has obstructed Justice Mansoor Ali Shah's path to becoming Chief Justice. He also pointed out that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had a more significant hand in this development than the government.

The Shehbaz Sharif-led government, with the assistance of allies including the PPP, passed contentious legislation in both the lower and upper houses of parliament, which changed the procedure for the appointment of future CJPs, fixed the post's tenure, and formed constitutional benches.

In an interview with BBC on Thursday, Sanaullah described the PTI as a chaos-bent party, noting, "Whoever they support ends up facing damage."

Praising Justice Mansoor, the PM's adviser said: "The PTI lawmakers have been saying that they have reached an understanding with Justice Mansoor."

He added: "PTI people said that when Justice Mansoor will assume [CJP's] office in October he will take measures against the government."

Sanaullah warned that comments like these could undermine anyone's credibility.

Before the passage of the 26th amendment, senior puisne judge Justice Mansoor was set to assume the CJP office as he was the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court after the retirement of CJP Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

However, the seniority rule was removed from the Constitution. After the 26th amendment, the selection of the next chief justice will no longer be based solely on seniority, and instead, the choice will be made among the three most senior judges of the Supreme Court.

A 12-member special parliamentary committee will decide on the chief justice’s nomination with a two-thirds majority. The committee will then forward the selected name to the prime minister, who will send the nomination to the president for final approval.