The Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday that the parliamentary committee turned down judicial commission's recommendations for giving one-year extension in service to two Sindh High Court (SHC) judges on the basis of reservations expressed by the sole member of the commission.
Justice Tariq Pervaiz annoyingly said that under 18th Amendment, the parliamentary panel is bound to give its own sound logic for turning down the commission's recommendations, but instead it took a weak plea, saying it rejected the recommendations on the reservations of one member of the commission.
A four-member bench headed by Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez was hearing petitions against parliamentary committee's decision, which had rejected judicial commission's recommendations for one-year extension in the service to four Additional Judges of Lahore High Court and two of Sindh High Court (SHC).
Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) filed the petitions through its president Anwar Mansoor and Munir Hussain Bhatti advocate and Kamran Murtaza, through their counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan. Makhdoom Ali Khan said that before 18th Amendment, the CJP had primacy on the appointment of superior courts judges and president had to approve the names forwarded by chief justice of Pakistan. But now parliamentary committee was performing the executive functions instead of doing legislation. The counsel argued that the committee has limited role and it could not rehash the recommendation made by the commission.
Anwar Mansoor seconded Makhdoom's arguments, but said that the views expressed before the commission by one of its members was the view of an individual and not of the commission as a whole. He said after hearing the views of all the members, the commission unanimously approved that the names of judges be sent to the committee for approval. Federation's counsel K. K. Agha sought some time from the apex court to thoroughly examine the case and prepare for giving appropriate arguments. The court accepted his plea and adjourned the hearing till Thursday.