LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa on Thursday expressed his wish for the Supreme Cou­rt to perform with its full constitutional capacity.

“Filling the vacant positions of the judges in the Supreme Court and high courts is a priority,” he said at a select gathering of the Supreme Court lawyers at the Lahore Registry.

Senior puisne judge Ju­­stice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Athar Min­allah and Justice Shahid Waheed were also present at the gathering hosted by Supreme Court Bar Asso­ciation President Shahzad Shaukat.

The CJP said that rules for the Judicial Commis­sion of Pakistan were necessary before making the new appointments. He said a rule-making committee led by Justice Shah had submitted draft rules, adding that the draft is awaiting final approval. He requested the chief justices of respective high courts to gradually fill the vacancies of judges after the finalisation of rules.

Says video link technology has made registries redundant

He said the Supreme Court wanted a consensus among all the stakeholders, including the bar, on the procedure for the appointment of judges.

About the formation of SC benches at the registries, CJP Isa mentioned that the video link technology had made the registries redundant.

He said it remains to be seen whether to run the registries through a video link or by constituting benches for the registries. He stated that benches should not operate for less than a week at a registry and expressed his wish to work at all the registries.

He emphasised that the bar and the bench were not different, but a same institution.

The chief justice pointed out that he had referred the disputes of lawyers to the respective bars as he gave respect to the elected representatives of the bar.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2024