Islamabad (TDI): The Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC) has commenced its first official meeting to appoint the new Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) from the three most senior judges of the Supreme Court.
Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq had constituted a 12-member committee on Monday for the appointment of the CJP. However, only eight members of the committee are attending the meeting after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Sunni Ittihad Council (SIC) announced a boycott.
The SPC was originally scheduled to meet at 4 pm today, but the meeting had to be delayed due to non-participation from PTI and the SIC. The Speaker called the opposition parties in his chamber to develop a consensus on the matter, but Barrister Gohar refused his party’s participation.
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The SPC originally comprised 8 NA members and 4 senators nominated by their respective parliamentary leaders.
As per a notification from the National Assembly, the committee includes PML-N’s Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Shaista Pervaiz Malik and Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar.
From the PPP, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Naveed Qamar and Senator Farooq H. Naek are part of the committee.
SIC’s Hamid Raza, PTI’s Gohar Khan and Senator Ali Zafar, MQM-P’s Rana Ansar, and JUI-F’s Senator Kamran Murtaza were named in the SPC.
Only the first eight members are attending the meeting after PTI and SIC’s boycott.
The incumbent Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa is retiring on October 26. After CJP Isa, the most senior judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was set to become the next CJP.
However, after the 26th Constitutional Amendment Act, of 2024, a 12-member parliamentary committee will select the new CJP from a panel of the three most senior Apex Court judges.
As of now, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, and Justice Yahya Afridi are the three most senior judges in the top 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.
