The Parliamentary Committee on the appointment of judges in Supreme Court (SC) approved the decision on Tuesday (31 August) of making a constitutional amendment to the selection and removal of judges at this level, and apply the public interest jurisdiction under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution.
The meeting, by the Parliamentary Committee on the appointment of judges in Supreme Court, was held at the Parliament House, while being headed by Senator Farooq H Naek, who as per a press release had proposed these amendments as well.
The press release stated, “Unanimously approved the constitutional amendments in the relevant provision of the Constitution regarding judiciary proposed by the chairman of committee Senator Farooq H Naek”
Others in attendance at the meeting included:
- Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar.
- Senator Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti.
- MNA Ali Muhammad Khan.
- MNA Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
- MNA Rana Sana Ullah Khan.
- Secretary Senate Mohammad Qasim Samad Khan.
It was discussed in the meeting that appointment of judges at the Superior Courts level shall be done in line with the seniority level “which shall be determined with reference to their date of appointment as a judge of the high court and in case the dates of the appointments of the judges are the same then the decision will be made on the basis of their age.”
It was agreed upon in the meeting that acting or ad hoc judges at SC will be placed after the authorization of the Parliamentary Committee.
In addition, it was decided that under Article 184 (3) of when suo moto action is taken in human rights cases by the Supreme Court, the case will be heard by three apex court judges. Also, decided was that appeal against any order could be filed within 30 days of issuance and was to be heard by 5 judges of the supreme court under 60 days. Moreover, if an appeal was taken against a decision, the order would not be implemented until the appeal was concluded.
The committee also decreed that the retirement age for the high court judges was to be made similar to that of the Supreme Court judges, by increasing them from 62 years to 65 years.
An amendment under article 209 was also approved which stated that the incidence of misconduct against a superior judge, will be evaluated by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) within 90 days.
Lastly, the matter of Article 175-A which describes the manner of appointment of Supreme Court Judges and the formation of the SJC will be discussed in the next meeting. On another note, the committee decided that Federal Minister for Law and Justice Dr. Farogh Naseem was to be invited to the next meeting as well.
