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A meeting of the newly constituted Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC) to nominate the next Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) will meet again at 8:30pm after the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) members skipped its maiden proceeding.
The in-camera meeting of the parliamentary panel comprising government and opposition members held at room no 5 of the Parliament House.
However, the members belonging to the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) skipped the meeting, prompting the committee members to meet again later tonight.
The government is racing against time to appoint the new top judge as the incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire on October 25. Under the previous law, the incumbent CJP would have been automatically replaced by the senior puisne judge — Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
However, the method has been changed following the enactment of the contentious 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill.
Under amendments to clause 3 of Article 175A, the top judge will now be “appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior judges of Supreme Court” with two-thirds majority.
After Justice Shah, the next two senior judges were Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Yahya Afridi.
The committee consists of senators Azam Nazeer Tarar from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), Farooq H Naek from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Syed Ali Zafar from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Kamran Murtaza Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
Meanwhile, members of the NA from PML-N include Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Shaista Parvez; Raana Ansar from Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Syed Naveed Qamar and Raja Pervez Ashraf from PPP, and Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Sahibzada Hamid Raza from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
It may be pointed out that the process for appointment of the new chief justice is required to be completed in the next three days as incumbent CJP Isa is going to retire on October 25.
As per clause 3C of Article 175A, the committee by the majority of not less than two-thirds of its total membership, within 14 days prior to retirement of the CJP would send the nomination. However, the first nomination under clause 3 after commencement of the Constitution (Twenty-sixth) Act 2024 would be sent within three days prior to retirement of the chief justice.
However, the clause (3) of Article 175A also mentioned that if the nominee from amongst three senior most judges declines, the remaining judges from amongst three senior most judges would be considered for nomination.
This is a developing story and is being updated with further details