Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf<\/a> (PTI) lawyer Khawaja Tariq Rahim said that the judicial reform bill has become part of the law.<\/p>\nOn this point, the court sought record of the debate held in the Parliament and standing committee on judicial reforms.<\/p>\n
While the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) requested the inclusion of senior judges in the bench. The PBC stated that more than six references have been filed against Justice Mazahar Ali Naqvi who is part of the bench.<\/p>\n
However, the PBC’s request for the formation of a full court and exclusion of Justice Naqvi was rejected by the court.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court also rejected the AGP\u2019s request to withdraw its stay order till April 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no legal importance of a reference filed against any judge. Until the reference is fixed for hearing, it does not hold any importance,\u201d Justice Bandial said, highlighting that a bench \u2014 headed by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry \u2014 had addressed the issue in a verdict.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitics has tainted the judicial process,\u201d the country\u2019s top judge remarked. He maintained that there are also some limitations and restrictions of the federal list with respect to legislative powers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee section 55 of the Federal Legislative List,\u201d the CJP said. He added that an independent judiciary is a fundamental component of the Constitution and it cannot be changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is alleged that the fundamental part of the Constitution was violated through legislation for the first time in the country\u2019s history,\u201d he remarked. He added that the chief justice has the authority to appoint seven senior judges and form a full court<\/p>\n
Only the president, CJP Bandial said, can file a reference as declared by the court in the Iftikhar Chaudhry case.<\/p>\n
\u201cA reference against a judge cannot prevent them from working until the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Council,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The CJP said that the court gave the same decision even in the Justice Qazi Faez Isa case and highlighted that he has receives complaints against judges regularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cComplaints keep coming against most of the Supreme Court judges including myself,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Criticising political parties for seeking verdicts based on their wishes, the chief justice said: \u201cPolitical people want decisions of their choice, not justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The demand for a full court and removal of judges was also made during the elections delay case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision of the Supreme Court judges is the decision of the court. Every institution is bound to implement the Supreme Court\u2019s orders,\u201d the CJP said.<\/p>\n
The hearing of the pleas was adjourned by the court till May 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will resume the case on Monday and then review all the issues,\u201d CJP Bandial said.<\/p>\n
He also directed all parties in the case to submit written arguments in the case.<\/p>\n
Arguments on full court<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter having the PBC\u2019s request rejected during the hearing, its lawyer Hassan Raza Pasha apologised to the judiciary in case of any hurt caused.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not angry. We will leave [eventually]. PBC will stay here, we won\u2019t,\u201d CJP Bandial said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA request for formation of a full court was made earlier, but not for the exclusion of judges,\u201d Pasha elaborated.<\/p>\n
CJP Bandial asked the PBC counsel to find out what a full court is according to lawyers. Pasha said he has informed the court about lawyers\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Supreme Court bar has to protect the institution,\u201d the chief justice remarked.<\/p>\n
He said that it should first be understood what the law is and why is it made.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court should consider expanding the bench,\u201d AGP Awan said. The CJP responded saying that the members of the bench can also be reduced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the judges of the Supreme Court are not respected, then there will be no demand for justice,\u201d the top judge said.<\/p>\n
He lamented that it was shameful that a request for full court was made in the previous case.<\/p>\n
Background <\/strong><\/p>\nThe Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, which is aimed at regulating the powers of the CJP, was approved by the Parliament during a joint sitting on April 10.<\/p>\n
The National Assembly, on April 21, notified the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 as an act.<\/p>\n
The bill’s implementation was halted by the same bench hearing the\u00a0 case today.<\/p>\n
The top court, during the last hearing of the case on April 13, had stopped the implementation of the law observing that if the law received the assent of the president, the bill would not be acted upon in any manner till further order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment that the Bill receives the assent of the President or (as the case may be) it is deemed that such assent has been given, then from that very moment onwards and till further orders, the Act that comes into being shall not have, take or be given any effect nor be acted upon in any manner,\u201d read the nine-page interim order issued on April 13.<\/p>\n
In its order, the bench stated that the facts and circumstances presented here are extraordinary both in import and effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Political parties want to \u2018pick and choose\u2019 benches for desired decisions: CJP. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial remarked on Tuesday that the political parties wanted to \u201cpick and choose” the bench for “desired judgments”. The CJP passed the remarks as the Supreme Court resumed hearing on the petitions challenging the law clipping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":15816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[2730,1890,1200,103,138,253,194],"class_list":["post-15815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-pakistan","tag-cjp","tag-pdm","tag-supreme-court","tag-imran-khan","tag-pakistan","tag-pmln","tag-pti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}