ISLAMABAD: Justice Qazi Faiz Isa on Friday urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Atta Bandial to “immediately” convene a meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) to fill the vacant seats in the Supreme Court. Because vacant seats can “deactivate” Pakistan’s highest court.
In a letter dated September 28, the judge appealed to the chief justice – who is also the chairman of the JCP. A copy of the letter is available. Jio TV.
Justice Isa emphasized that 726 working days of the Supreme Court have been lost due to the five vacancies and during this time “over 50,000 cases have accumulated in the Supreme Court”.
| Name of former Supreme Court Judge | Date of Retirement | Retired days |
| Justice Gulzar Ahmed | 1 February 2022 | 239 |
| Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed | March 25, 2022 | 187 |
| Justice Maqbool Bagar | April 4, 2022 | 177 |
| Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Mian Khel | July 13, 2022 | 77 |
| Justice Sajjad Ali Shah | August 13, 2022 | 46 |
| Total: 726 |
In the letter, Justice Isa told the Chief Justice that ‘I am pained to state that the cases filed in the Supreme Court are unlikely to be decided if the vacancies are not filled’.
The judge reminded the JCP chairman that people had “invested a lot in the Supreme Court which employs around 700 staff and has a substantial budget”. He further argued that it was “not understandable”. Why is the Supreme Court working at 30% less capacity in such circumstances?
“Every passing day that the five seats remain vacant adds to the existing mountain of cases, threatening to become insurmountable, rendering the Supreme Court dysfunctional. The same staff and money. One who will serve the full court will also serve the truncated one, hence, there is an unnecessary hemorrhaging of resources,” Justice Isa said.
According to the senior judge, the constitutional responsibility of “speedy justice” falls on the Supreme Court and this responsibility falls on Justice Bandial as he is the Chief Justice. He further said that we should not disappoint the people of Pakistan and on the Supreme Court should not erode their trust and continue to waste their hard earned money.
“Sir, I have repeatedly asked you to do your constitutional duty, and let the members of the commission do their job. Therefore, please immediately convene the commission to nominate the Supreme Court judges to the commission.” can be made capable of”. Justice Isa said.
JCP meeting controversy
The last meeting of the JCP was held in July last year where, based on sources, it was reported that the commission had rejected Chief Justice Bandyal’s nominees of high court judges for promotion to the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Bandyal presided over the meeting of the Judicial Commission, which consisted of a total of five judges, two from the Sindh High Court and three from the Lahore High Court (LHC).
However, the official statement issued by the Supreme Court said that after a detailed discussion, the JCP Chairman, “proposed to adjourn the meeting to allow the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan to take his earlier recommendation. To enable additional information and data to be placed on, as he deems appropriate, add more names to the list of recommenders for consideration by the JCP.
The proposal to adjourn the meeting was supported by Mr. Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, Mr. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Mr. Justice (retd) Sarmad Jalal Usmani and the Attorney General of Pakistan. After which it was decided to adjourn the meeting. The date of the next meeting will be intimated to the members of the Judicial Commission by the Chairman JCP,” the statement said.
However, after the statement was made public, two members of the JCP, Justice Isa and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, said that the statement did not reflect what happened in the JCP meeting.
After the criticism, the Supreme Court uploaded the audio of the JCP meeting on its website.
“In these extraordinary circumstances Hon’ble Chairman JCP is pleased to relax the ban under Rule 5(4) of JCP Rules 2010 and directs that the proceedings of JCP on 28.07.2022 Audio recording of the should be made available.A statement issued by the Supreme Court said that the official website of the SCP.
The Supreme Court in its statement claimed that “the audio recording from time slot 1:29:45 to 1:38:08 contains the statement of Attorney General for Pakistan Ishtar Usaf Ali” due to which the meeting was adjourned. The PRO has claimed.
The statement also claimed that the AGP “has neither assessed nor rejected the merits of any High Court judge recommended for appointment to the SCP”.
“Consequently, 5 JCP members supported the adjournment of the meeting as mentioned in the press note dated 28.07.2022,” SCP said.
