National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Monday night notified the Special Parliamentary Committee set to deliberate on the appointment of the upcoming chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) from among the three most senior Supreme Court judges.

CJP Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire as the top judge on October 25. Originally, senior puisne judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was set to be the next CJP.

Click to see more

However, earlier today, the 26th Constitutional Amendment was passed to become law.

Among the many changes in the Constitution, the greatest number of amendments are made to Article 175A, which deals with the process of appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, high courts, and the Federal Shariat Court.

Under amendments to clause 3 of Article 175A, instead of the president appointing the “most senior judge of the Supreme Court” as the CJP, the top judge will now be “appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior” SC judges.

The next two most senior apex court judges are Justices Munib Akhtar and Yahya Afridi.

The committee, constituted for the same purpose, shall send the name of the nominee to the prime minister who shall forward the same to the president for the appointment.

Under a new clause 3A, the Special Parliamentary Committee shall consist of the following twelve members, namely:

(i) eight members from the National Assembly; and

(ii) four members from the Senate:

“Provided that when the National Assembly stands dissolved, the total membership of the committee shall consist of the members from the Senate only mentioned in paragraph (ii) and the provisions of this Article shall, mutatis mutandis, apply,” the act adds.

Under clause 3B, the “parliamentary parties shall have proportional representation on the committee, based on their strength in Majlis-i-Shoora (parliament), to be nominated by their respective parliamentary leaders. The chairman and the speaker of the National Assembly, as the case may be, shall notify members of the committee”.

Under clause 3C, the Committee shall send the nomination, “by majority of not less than two-thirds of its total membership, within 14 days prior to the retirement” of the CJP.

The act adds: Provided that the first nomination under clause (3), after the 26th Amendment is in force, shall be sent “within three days prior to the retirement” of the top judge.

Accordingly, Sadiq notified the committee today under clause 3B after nominations by the respective parliamentary leaders of political parties based on their strength in parliament.

The committee comprises PML-N’s Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar and Shaista Pervaiz Malik; PPPs Raja Pervez Ashraf, Senator Farooq H Naek and Naveed Qamar; Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Rana Ansar; Sunni Ittehad Council’s Hamid Raza, Barrister Ali Gohar and Senator Ali Zafar and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s Senator Kamran Murtaza.

The parliamentary party leaders of the above four parties were earlier requested to nominate their MNAs for the committee.

The NA speaker had also sent a letter to Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani seeking the nominations of the four senators for the committee.

Under more judicial reforms, the CJP’s term has been limited to a maximum of three years.

The change has been introduced to Article 179, which will now read: “A judge of the Supreme Court shall hold office until he attains the age of 65 years, unless he sooner resigns or is removed from office in accordance with the Constitution.”

The above has the condition that the CJP’s term “shall be three years or unless he sooner resigns or attains the age of 65 years or is removed from his office in accordance with the Constitution, whichever is earlier”, as well as provided further that the top judge, “on completion of his term of three years, shall stand retired notwithstanding his age of superannuation”.

Earlier today, the Karachi Bar Association criticised the new constitutional amendment and demanded that there was “no justifiable reason to deny the appointment of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah” as the next chief justice, calling for his nomination and notification to the post.

Similarly, last week the Sindh Bar Council and Lawyers Action Committee had also called for the issuance of a notification to appoint Justice Shah as the new chief justice of Pakistan.