Judicial Commission of Pakistan: Chief justices of high courts to initiate judges’ appointments

Will give names in ‘informal consultation’ with respective bars

ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) has agreed that superior court chief judges will initiate the process of appointment of judges in ‘informal consultation’ with representatives of respective bar councils, sources revealed to The Express Tribune on Saturday.

All representatives of the commission – including senior most judges, chief justices of high courts, federal and provincial law ministers as well as bar representatives – participated in the meeting to consider a set of proposed amendments to JCP
Rules 2010.

Sources said that after two hours of discussions, the commission deferred the agenda about the amendments in JCP rules 2010 till the court’s final decision on the 18th amendment case, which is pending since October 2010.

A 17-judge bench of the apex court, headed by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on 21 October 2010, passed a short order in the 18th amendment case, wherein the procedure of judges’ appointment was challenged. The top court’s short order was later incorporated into the 19th amendment.

The final verdict on the 18th amendment case is still awaited for the last four years. At present, 16 judges are performing their duties in the apex court. A member of the commission, however, states that the same judges can resume the hearing of the 18th amendment case.

It has been agreed that the JCP’s rules 2010 was framed in view of the court’s 21 October 2010 short order, therefore, there is need to revisit it or resume the hearing of the case, the sources stated.

Similarly, Pakistan Bar Council’s (PBC) representative Yasin Azad believes that there is no legal bar on the commission to amend the rules.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2014.