After a delay of 4 hours, the meeting of the Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC) to nominate the next Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) from among the three most senior Supreme Court (SC) judges has begun in Islamabad.
The meeting was earlier scheduled for 4pm but faced a delay after the members belonging to the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
The current CJP Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire later this month. After CJP Isa, the senior most judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was set to become the next CJP.
However, after the Constitution (26th Amendment) Act, 2024, a 12-member parliamentary committee will now select the new CJP from a panel of the three most senior SC judges.
As of now, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, and Justice Yahya Afridi are the three most senior judges in the apex court. The SPC will nominate any one of these three judges.
After the amendments, the term for the CJP has been set at three years.
The parliamentary committee, consisting of 8 members from the NA and 4 from the Senate, will propose the name to the prime minister, who will then forward it to the president for final approval.
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A Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), led by the CJP and including 3 senior judges, 2 members each from the NA and Senate, the federal minister for law and justice, the attorney general, and a legal expert with at least 15 years of SC experience, will oversee judicial appointments.
Followed the Constitution (Twenty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2024, NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq formed the SPC on Monday.
The SPC comprises 8 NA members and 4 senators nominated by their respective parliamentary leaders.
According to the notification issued by the NA, the committee includes Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz’s (PML-N) Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Shaista Pervaiz Malik and Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar.
From the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Raja Pervez Ashraf, Naveed Qamar and Senator Farooq H. Naek are part of the committee.
Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) Hamid Raza, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Gohar Khan and Senator Ali Zafar, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Rana Ansar, and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Senator Kamran Murtaza are are included in the SPC, as per the NA notification.