Justice Mansoor told: JCP can’t discuss 26th constitutional amendment, says CJP

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi made it clear on Friday that the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) did not have the scope to discuss the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

Chairing a JCP meeting here, he said that after the 26th Constitutional Amendment, the constitutional bench committee was empowered to fix cases related to constitutional matters.

It was learnt that senior judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, had proposed that a full court should be constituted for hearing identical petitions, challenging the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

Sources privy to the meeting proceedings said that majority of members of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan supported the stance of CJP Yahya Afridi.

Earlier, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan unanimously decided to accord highest priority to framing of rules for regulating its procedure as well as criteria for assessment, evaluation and fitness for appointment of judges.

The meetings of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan in Centre, and JCP for Sindh High Courts of Sindh) and Judicial Commission of Pakistan (Peshawar High Court) were convened on Friday

CJP Yahya Afridi chaired the meetings and all members concerned also attended it, while Justice Munib Akhtar joined it through video-link from Supreme Court Branch Registry Karachi.

The meetings took up for consideration different agendas including constitution of rules committee for preparing draft rules for procedure of Judicial Commission of Pakistan, nomination of Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, judge Supreme Court of Pakistan, as the judge for constitutional benches in the Supreme Court, nominations for appointment as additional judges for Peshawar High Court and Sindh High Court and to consider two names of sitting judges of the high court of Sindh for the constitutional benches.

The commission authorised the chairman/ chief justice of Pakistan to nominate members out of the commission for the purpose of constituting the committee. Consequently, the CJP constituted the committee of the following members to undertake drafting rules and share the same with the Secretariat of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan by Dec 15, 2024:

Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, judge Supreme Court (chairman); Mansoor Usman Awan, attorney general for Pakistan (member); Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, senator (member); Farooq H. Naek, senator (member); and Akhtar Hussain, senior advocate SC, (member). The committee will have support of the following individuals:

Niaz Muhammad Khan, secretary JCP; Zafar Iqbal, research officer, Supreme Court; Qaiser Abbas, research officer, Supreme Court. The committee is expected to furnish the draft rules by Dec 15, 2024.

The commission also approved the nomination of Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, a judge of the Supreme Court, for the constitutional benches of the Supreme Court.

In its second meeting, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (Peshawar High Court) the agenda of appointment of additional judges for the Peshawar High Court was deferred till Dec 21, 2024.

It was also decided to extend the date of submission of nominations for appointment of additional judges till Dec 10, 2024.

Meanwhile, the JCP (Sindh) nominated Justice Adnanul Karim Memon and Justice Agha Faisal as judges of constitutional benches of the Sindh High Court by a majority vote.

In the meeting of JCP (SHC), the agenda for appointment of additional judges for the Sindh High Court was deferred till Dec 21, 2024. It was also decided to extend the date of submission of nominations for appointment of additional judges till Dec 10, 2024.

The meeting was attended by the SC judges including Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui, chief justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, chief justice of Peshawar High Court, Justice Ijaz Anwar, judge of Peshawar High Court, Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha, judge of Sindh High Court, Azam Nazeer Tarar, federal minister for law and justice, Mansoor Usman Awan, attorney general for Pakistan, Sheikh Aftab Ahmad, MNA, Barrister Ali Gohar, MNA, Barrister Ali Zafar, senator, Farooq H. Naek, senator, Ziaul Hassan Lanjhar, minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Sindh, Aftab Alam Afridi, minister for law, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Akhtar Hussain, senior ASC, Ms. Roshan Khursheed Bharucha, nominee of the speaker National Assembly, Munir Hussain Lughmani, representative of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council, and Qurban Ali Malano, representative of the Sindh Bar Council.