National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice has passed a bill to allow increase in number of judges of Supreme Court from 17 to 19. The meeting of the committee was held here with MNA Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf in the chair at the Parliament House on Thursday.
The committee discussed the bill, 'The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2017,' in detail and decided to pass it. The committee recommended the National Assembly to pass the bill too. The bill was moved by the ruling party MNA Surriya Asghar and she said that increase in the number of judges would help for speedy justice. She also said that increase in number of judges of apex court will help clear the backlog too.
Asghar spoke about the number of pending cases in lower and higher judiciary at numerous times in the National Assembly and pressed the government to take measures to clear the backlog. The committee rejected another bill moved by Surriya Asghar after detailed deliberations. The committee said that 'The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Article 198)' was not required at this time.
The committee also considered 'The National Accountability Ordinance (Amendment) Bill, 2017' moved by MNA Muhammad Ayaz Soomro. The committee said that the bill has lapsed due to death of the mover of the bill. Pakistan Peoples Party's member Soomro passed away in March this year after protracted illness.
The committee also considered the bills, 'The Constitution (Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2017 (Government Bill),' 'The Holders of Public Exchequer (Accountability) Bill, 2015' (repeal of NAB Ordinance 1999) moved by MNA Muhammad Raza Hayat Harraj. The committee also considered the amendment bills regarding accountability moved separately by Dr Arif Alvi, Sheikh Salahuddin and Sahibzada Tariqullah. The committee decided that the bills may be deferred till its next meeting for further deliberations.