First administrative order: CJP Afridi brings Justice Munib back into key SC panel

ISLAMABAD: The newly-appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Yahya Afridi, Saturday reconstituted the judges committee, established under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, bringing back Justice Munib Akhtar, by exercising his powers under the amended law.

The three-member committee, mandated to fix cases and constitute benches, includes the CJP, and two senior-most judges of the apex court, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar.

Justice Yahya was sworn in as the 30th Chief Justice of Pakistan on Saturday. President Asif Ali Zardari administered him oath of his office at a ceremony held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, services chiefs, Senate Chairman Yusuf Raza Gilani, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, governors, chief ministers, ministers, judges of the Supreme Court, high courts, former chief justices, law officers, office-bearers of lawyers bodies, lawyers and media persons.

SC judges, including Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Shahid Bilal, Justice Musarrat Hilali, Justice Irfan Saadat, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Justice Aisha Malik, former CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry, Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz, Governor Sardar Saleem Haider, KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, alongside parliamentarians were also in attendance.

Justice Yahya Afridi was nominated by a special parliamentary committee as the next CJP among the three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court under the newly adopted 26th Constitutional Amendment, and a summary in this regard was forwarded by the prime minister to the president, who accorded approval to the appointment of Justice Afridi as the 30th CJP.

After becoming the CJP, Justice Afridi also became the chairman of Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a constitutional forum meant for accountability of judges of superior courts. Other members of the council would be senior SC judges, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar and chief justices of high courts.

Soon after becoming the new CJP, Justice Afridi was presented a guard of honour on his arrival at the Supreme Court. The newly appointed CJP, after assuming his charge, issued his first administrative order, and reconstituted the committee, established under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, bringing back SC’s senior judge Justice Munib Akhtar to the committee. SC Registrar Jazeela Aslam issued a notification on the reconstitution of the judges committee.

“In supersession of this Court’s Office Order of even number dated 20 September, 2024, and in exercise of powers under Section 2(1) of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, as amended by the Ordinance No. VIII of 2024, the Chief Justice of Pakistan has been pleased to re-constitute the requisite committee,” says the notification.

The re-constituted committee includes CJP Justice Yahya Afridi, and senior most judges, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar.

Earlier, the outgoing chief justice Qazi Faez Isa, while exercising his powers under the amended law, had appointed Justice Aminuddin Khan to the judges committee, replacing Justice Munib Akhtar.

Senior puisne judge of the SC Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, on Sept 23, while expressing concerns on the exclusion of Justice Munib from the committee, had questioned the constitutional validity of the new ordinance, promulgated and amending the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, which was mandated to deal with the affairs of the top court, including the formation of benches.

In a related development, CJP Justice Yahya Afridi convened a full court meeting on Monday, October 28, and also called a meeting of administrative judges of anti-terrorism courts, along with progress reports on Nov 7, in the Supreme Court.

Likewise, the new CJP also called a meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council for Nov 8. The notifications in this regard were uploaded to the official website of the apex court. However, no details were given as to which complaint or reference would be taken up by the council.

CJP Yahya Afridi also decided to provide livestreaming services for all courtrooms in the Supreme Court, sources said on Saturday. He assigned the task to Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar. The service would be conditional to the consent of petitioners.

Earlier, the live-streaming facility was only available in court room No 1. With this facility, the overseas Pakistani litigants would be able to have access to livestreaming proceedings of the court. In this respect, it was learnt that a committee has been constituted for giving its proposals for the purchase of cameras to be fixed in all courts for livestreaming as well.

Meanwhile, the SC website was also updated where former CJP Qazi Faez Isa’s name was replaced with Justice Yahya Afridi’s.