ISLAMABAD: Four members of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), including two senior Supreme Court judges, on Saturday urged Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial to urgently summon the session to fill five vacant seats of judges in the Supreme Court.

The two judges, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood wrote a joint letter to the chief justice while representatives of bar councils in the JCP have adopted a resolution highlighting the huge backlog of cases at a time when five out of 17 offices of judges in the court were vacant.

In the one-page letter, Justice Masood and Justice Shah — members of the JCP — urged the chief justice to immediately call the commission’s meeting to honour the constitutional obligation and uphold his oath under the Constitution.

“The inordinate delay of almost nine months must be urgently addressed first,” the letter emphasised, while calling for swift action to fill the apex court’s seats which have been vacant since Feb 2022.

Justice Shah, Justice Masood write letter to chief justice; bar representatives say vacant seats hampering court’s work

“We had proposed in our meetings either to consider five chief justices of the five high courts against the five vacant posts or consider the top two judges from every high court and open these options to vote in the next JCP meeting.”

The two judges stated that this was “the best way forward” in the current circumstances till a more sophisticated selection criteria and the rules of JCP are framed.

It is a constitutional obligation of the commission to ensure that the constitutional offices do not remain vacant and the vacancies are filled in without any delay, it said.

The letter highlighted that the delay would give rise to unwanted rumours of petty politics, lobbying and quid pro quo appointments, which would undermine the institution and impair the neutrality and the transparency of the appointment process.

To fulfil the constitutional obligation outlined in Article 175A(8), meetings of JCP should automatically be scheduled at the earliest on the occurrence of any vacancy in the Supreme Court, it noted.

Vacant seats ‘hampering work’

Meanwhile the meeting of bar representatives, chaired by senior counsel Akhtar Hussain who represents the Pakistan Bar Council in the JCP, was held in Quetta.

The meeting was attended by Rahib Khan Buledi of the Balochistan Bar Council, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Cou­ncil’s Ahmed Farooq Khattak and Syed Haider Imam Rizvi, Sindh Bar Council.

The meeting reminded the chief justice that during the commission’s last meeting on July 28, he had expressed the desire to not only nominate judges to the existing vacancies, but even to the anticipated vacancy which would have fallen vacant in August after the retirement of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah.

Since July, no new nominations have been forwarded nor a meeting has been summoned for the appointments which has caused immense suffering to litigants, the resolution adopted after the meeting said.

It added that the last JCP meeting had a clear majority for adhering to the seniority principle and the disputed postponement of the meeting has created great resentment among the bars.

The bar representatives also called for a meeting of the Rules Committee of the JCP to prepare draft rules for approval “so that arbitrariness and nepotism in the process of appointments be eliminated”.

The resolution recalled that for more than a year, a crisis has been created in the Sindh High Court due to deviation from the seniority principle.

The high court’s chief justice was in an odd and unprecedented constitutional limbo as he was simultaneously notified as an ad-hoc judge of the Supreme Court while serving as chief justice.

It also blamed deviation from the seniority principle for the “breakdown of judicial comity between senior judges.”

The resolution also regretted that despite repeated pleas, the Supreme Court was yet to amend the rules to regulate the suo motu proceedings or constitution of benches.

“The complete discretion and absolute power afforded to the chief justice in this regard has not only led to allegations of arbitrariness and partiality but have ad­­versely affected the reputation of the apex court and the administration of justice.”

It also called upon parliament to exercise its power under Article 191 of the Constitution and pass an act to regulate the court’s procedure and repeal the 19th Constitutional amendment.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2022