ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday made public the minutes of a Committee constituted under Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) and the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s letter.
These contain a decision of the senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar date October 31, 2024, wherein, they demanded that the constitutional petitions challenging the 26th Amendments be placed before the Full Court (on judicial side) and fixed for hearing on November 4, 2024.
In response to that decision, CJP Yahya Afridi wrote a letter on 31-10-2024 that “the matter for constitution of the benches for hearing a petition under Article 184 of the Constitution, vests upon a Committee set up comprising of worthy judges of the Constitutional Bench, and not the Committee constituted under Supreme Court (Practice & Procedure) Act, 2023.”
The CJP's letter mentions; “I personally sought the opinion of all other thirteen judges of the Supreme Court, as to whether the request made by the two judges regarding the constitutional petitions challenging the 26th Constitutional Amendment filed under Article 184 of the Constitution to be fixed before a Full Court of the Supreme Court or before the Constitutional Bench under Clause (a) of Sub-Article (3) of Article 191A of the Constitution. Nine of the thirteen judges were of the view that the petitions challenging the 26th Constitutional Amendment be placed before a Constitutional Bench and not before the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”
As the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court I did not find it appropriate to call for a Full Court Meeting, as the same would not only dampen the much-needed spirit of collegiality amongst Judges but would also expose the Supreme Court to public comment, which regretfully has been the case in the recent past,” it added.
According to the minutes of 26th May, 2025, the Committee considered the revised draft of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Committee Procedure, 2025.
“It was unanimously decided that in case the Chairperson/Chief Justice of Pakistan is unavailable, for any reasons, or in case he proceeds abroad, he may constitute a committee for dealing with urgent situations mentioned in the Draft during his absence.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.