Follwoing Omar Ayub, PTI’s Shibli Faraz also steps down from JCP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Shibli Faraz stepped down as a member of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Wednesday, a day after senior party leader Omar Ayub resigned from the commission.

Senator Faraz has nominated Senator Barrister Ali Zafar to take his place on the 13-member judicial body.

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub had also sent his resignation to NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, stating the multiple cases filed against him as the main reason to not continue as a member.

PTI lawmaker, in his resignation letter, nominated party Chairman and MNA Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, to succeed him in the commission.

“I am writing to formally tender my resignation as a member of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan. This decision has been taken after careful consideration and is necessitated by the multitude of FIRs and legal cases filed against me, which require my immediate and undivided attention,” he wrote.

Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz were among four other lawmakers, nominated from the upper and lower houses last month for the reconstitution of the JCP after the enactment of the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

The top judicial body is headed by the chief justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi and consists of senior Supreme Court judges, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Senator Farooq H Naek and Shibli Faraz, MNAs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad, Omar Ayub and Roshan Khursheed Bharucha, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Attorney-General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, and Pakistan Bar Council representative Akhtar Hussain.

After the enactment of 26th Constitutional Amendment, the JCP is tasked with appointing judges to the Supreme Court, high courts, and Federal Shariat Court as well as overseeing the performance of high court judges and preparing their annual performance evaluations.