ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial was warned not to rush the “proper” procedure for the appointment of more than one-third of the total number of justices in the Supreme Court by senior puisne judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
Justice Isa expressed her displeasure with the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s (JCP) summoning procedure for the meeting to discuss the promotion of high court judges to the Supreme Court in a letter to the JCP, which is led by CJP Bandial.
It was unexpected, according to Justice Isa, that the JCP meeting had been called to discuss the appointment of five SC judges during the summer break.
As stated in the letter, Justice Isa “got a Whatsapp message while on my annual leave from the Additional Registrar of the Supreme Court advising me that the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan has summoned a meeting of the JCP on July 28, 2022 to discuss adding five judges to the SC.”
No JCP meeting was scheduled when I took advantage of annual leave, but as soon as I departed Pakistan, the CJP decided to hold two JCP meetings to discuss appointments to the Sindh and Lahore High Courts. Now, a third unscheduled JCP meeting is expected to take place during the SC’s summer break.”
The CJP himself informed the SC of its summer holidays, which were thereafter published in the Official Gazette. Instead of breaking it, let the CJP first retract his notification if he completely negates it.
He emphasised that everyone, with the exception of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, agreed to postpone the JCP meeting on June 28 since there was no rationale for calling it during the gazetted summer break and because the most senior judge was on approved annual leave.
