Justice Isa seeks early JCP meeting

ISLAMABAD:

Supreme Court Senior Puisne Judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa has urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to summon the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) to consider the appointment of five judges to fill vacancies at the apex court.

Sources revealed to The Express Tribune that Justice Isa wrote another letter to the chief justice, the copies of which have sent to all the JCP members. The development was confirmed by one of the JCP members.

It is learnt that Justice Isa had questioned the delay in the appointment of five SC judges, in addition to highlighting the dates on which the SC judges were retired.

It is to be noted that former CJP Gulzar Ahmed retired on January 31, Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin on March 26, Justice Maqbool Baqar on April 4, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel on July 13 and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was retired on August 13.

On July 28, the chief justice had summoned a meeting of the commission to consider five appointments but the majority of the JCP members did not approve his nominees.

Later, it is learnt that CJP Bandial held an informal meeting with the judicial members of the JCP to discuss the options with regard to filling vacant posts of the Supreme Court but failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Pakistan Bar Council representative in JCP Akhtar Hussain, while talking to The Express Tribune, expressed his astonishment over the delay in appointing the judges.

“It is a matter of concern that that situation has come to the stage where the Supreme Court senior puisne judge has to point out the urgency of calling the JCP meeting to the chief justice to fill the vacant posts,” he added.

He said the apex court was short of nearly one-third strength of its strength while around 50,000 cases were in the court pending decisions.

Former additional attorney general Tariq Mehmood Khokhar, who has been a keen observer of the politics of the judiciary for almost forty years, said, "We have a rump Supreme Court (left with a reduced number of judges) and a rump parliament.”

Read more: Justice Isa questions talks with terrorists in Swat

“The appointment of a civil servant as registrar of the Supreme Court has reinforced the existing factious and fractious pressures on the chief justice,” he said and hoped “the crisis is not person-specific."

Currently, three future CJPs are part of the commission. There is a need of the hour that high court judges’ elevation to the Supreme Court should be made by the JCP unanimously. Then, there is also a perception of mistrust between senior judges.

PBC representative Hussain, in his earlier letter to the CJP, had written that the JCP members must not divide themselves in camps, nor treat the commission’s decisions as an internal election.

“We must neither seek to rush through our favoured candidates when we feel we are in the majority nor seek to unnecessarily postpone when we feel we are in minority,” he wrote in his letter.

He noted that the fierce and evident divisions that have cropped up within the judicial institution were not in the national interest.

“The blame can be rested at many doors. But as head of the legal fraternity of Pakistan – the solution lies, first and foremost, at your [CJP] door,” he further wrote.

There is also a crisis in the Sindh High Court that has been unresolved for the last five years. There is frustration among senior high court judges who are being ignored for promotions without any valid reason being mentioned.

The Supreme Court proceedings in the Justice Isa case has already damaged the institution. Likewise, the release of the audio recording of the last JCP meeting had also severely affected the judiciary’s reputation.

Instead of delaying the matter, CJP Bandial should find out a middle way.

JCP member Justice (retd) Sarmad Jalal Osmani had wondered why Justice Aqeel Abbasi was not considered for the appointment as an SC judge.

Similarly, there is also strong support for the elevation of Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah to the SC. However, the ball is in the court of the CJP as he is the authorised person to propose the nominees and summon a meeting under the JCP rules.

He will either wait for an appropriate time or evolve a consensus within the JCP about the appointment of the five new judges. There is also a need that flexibility should be shown by both the sides.

Justice Isa and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood in earlier their letter to CJP Bandial had stated that they had repeatedly called upon the chairman of the JCP to convene a meeting both before and after the summer vacations to enable nominations to the SC.

“To stress the urgency, we had stated that not filing the vacancies is a reckless disregard of a constitutional duty. But all to no avail. The Supreme Court cannot be placed in suspended animation till such time that the members use the words of the CJP 'support the candidates proposed by the chairman',” it added.