By Irum Saleem
The Army Chief and and chiefs of Air Force and Navy get two years extension in the wake of new legislation passed in the Parliament.
“The National Assembly on Monday passed six bills, including one seeking an increase in the number of Supreme Court judges and another related to the extension of the terms of armed services chiefs, amid deafening protest by the opposition,” Dawn reported.
“A few hours later, the Senate also passed the amendment bills. If President Asif Ali Zardari signs off on them, the changes — including to length of tenure (five years instead of three) as well as period of extension and reappointment (five years instead of three) — would apply to all current armed forces chiefs,” it says.
According to the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1997, “the [maximum] number of Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan other than the Chief Justice shall be sixteen.”
The maximum number of Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan other than the Chief Justice shall be up to thirty-three, the proposed bill read.
“This amendment will increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court up to 34, so that the backlog of cases can be cleared, and that after the 26th Amendment, we can have judges to form the constitutional benches,” Tarar said.
“Our bar lobbies and the SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) have been recommending this for a while now so that the four-bar court registries in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, and Lahore can relieve their thousands of pending cases. This number has been left open for the judicial commission,” the minister went on to say.
Dawn further reported that soon after the law minister presented the bill in the assembly and finished his speech, voting on the bill was carried out despite the opposition fiercely protesting.
The proposed amendments to the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 expanded the existing act to include additions made in the 26th Amendment, such as the introduction of constitutional benches.
“The bill sought to add Article 191A of the Constitution — the creation of constitutional benches — to the preamble. The preamble in the 2023 act read: “[…] Article 191 of the Constitution provides that subject to the Constitution and law, the Supreme Court may make rules regulating the practice and procedure of the Supreme Court.”
Additionally, an amendment to sub-section (2) of Section 1 was proposed to ensure that the act came into force at the same time as the Constitution (Twenty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2024.
Moreover, the bill sought to expand subsections (1) and (2) of Section 2 to include the constitutional benches. According to sub-section (1), “Every cause, appeal or matter before the Supreme Court shall be heard and disposed of by a bench constituted by the Committee comprising the chief justice of Pakistan and two next most senior Judges, in order of seniority.”
This committee would be expanded to include, “The most senior judge of the constitutional benches” in the proposed bill. Conditions were included in case the seniormost judge on the constitutional bench had not been nominated — in which case the chief justice and second-most senior judge would make up the committee — and that the chief justice can nominate any Supreme Court or constitutional bench judge “if a member declines to sit on the committee”.
The bill would also insert a new section, Section 2A, into the existing act, which outlined the practice and procedure of the constitutional benches. “Where a question arises as to whether a cause, matter, petition, appeal or review application … is to be heard and disposed of by a Constitutional Bench or another Bench of the Supreme Court, the committee constituted under clause (4) of Article 191A of the Constitution shall … determine the question…
“… If it decides that a matter falls within clause (3) of Article 191A of the Constitution, [it can] assign it to a Constitutional Bench for hearing and disposal … [if it] does not fall within clause (3) of Article 191A of the Constitution, [it can] send it to the Committee constituted under section 2 for disposal by another Bench.”
The bill adds that the registrar of the Supreme Court shall provide the “requisite administrative and secretarial support to the constitutional benches” and subject to the availability of judges, constitutional benches shall comprise an equal number of judges from each province.
Dawn says the 26th Constitutional Amendment, also known as the Constitutional Package, stripped the Supreme Court’s suo motu powers, set the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) term at three years and empowered the prime minister to appoint the next CJP from among the three most senior SC judges.
It also enabled the creation of constitutional benches in the Supreme Court through the newly inserted Article 191A.
The Amendment was passed by the Senate with a two-thirds majority on October 20, with an equivalent majority by the National Assembly in the wee hours of October 21.
The PMLN and PPP will continue to serve on old salaries. PAK DESTINY
