After Senate, bill proposing increase in top court judges' strength lands in NA

• Bill tabled in NA by PML-N parliamentarian Daniyal Chaudhary.
• Bill highlights significant backlog of cases due to shortage of judges.
• Duration of judges’ annual holidays should be curtailed: law minister.
  

ISLAMABAD: A bill seeking an increase in the number of judges in the Supreme Court was tabled in the National Assembly on Tuesday, a day after the similar bill was introduced in the Senate.

A day earlier, 'The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2024' was introduced by independent Senator Muhammad Abdul Qadir in the upper house to increase the number of apex court judges to 21.

In the bill tabled today in the lower house, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarian Daniyal Chaudhry called for increasing the number of judges to 23.

The statement and objects and reasons of the bill tabled in the Senate say that increasing the number of judges in the apex court is important because it deals with a significant backlog of cases.

The proposed legislation was met with criticism from PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan in today's NA session, who said that such an amendment could be brought only by the government as per the Constitution of Pakistan.

"Legislation on the number of Supreme Court judges cannot be done through a private member bill," Khan said.

The PTI lawmaker said that the country's top court works 155 days of the year compared to India's apex court, which works 190 days of the year.

"We should increase the Supreme Court's working days to address the rising number of pending cases," he added.

Speaking on the floor of the assembly, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar concurred with the PTI chief’s suggestion to increase the number of top court’s working days, saying that the duration of the apex court judges’ annual holidays should be curtailed.

He said that formerly the judges used to embark on long ship voyages to Britain so the apex courts had 60 days holidays twice a year.

"Now these holidays should be reduced," he said, adding that the number of apex court judges is still 17 while the population of Pakistan has soared to over 240 million.

He, however, revealed that the government has not yet made a final decision on increasing the number of Supreme Court judges and the matter will be decided after a detailed deliberation.