Special Parliamentary Committee formed for CJP appointment as deadline looms

• Federal cabinet session summoned at 4pm today.
• PM to send recommended name to president for approval.
• Justice Shah, Justice Munib, Justice Afridi among senior SC judges.

As incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire on October 25, the coalition government has kicked off the process of appointing a new top court judge following the enactment of the 26th Constitutional Amendment, which mandates the top judicial slot be filled three days before the incumbent's retirement.

In a notification issued on late Monday, the National Assembly Secretariat said that a 12-member Special Parliamentary Committee has been constituted for the appointment of next Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP).

The 12-member committee consists of eight lawmakers from treasury and four from opposition benches:

• MNA Khawaja Asif (PML-N)
• MNA Ahsan Iqbal (PML-N) 
• MNA Shaista Pervaiz (PML-N) 
• MNA Raja Pervaiz Ashraf (PPP) 
• MNA Syed Naveed Qamar (PPP) 
• MNA Rana Ansar (MQM-P) 
• MNA Barrister Gohar Ali Khan (PTI) 
• MNA Sahibzada Hamid Raza (SIC) 
• Senator Ali Zafar (PTI) 
• Senator Farooq H Naek (PPP) 
• Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar (PML-N)
• Senator Kamran Murtaza (JUI-F)
  

The special committee will hold an in-camera sitting at the Parliament House at 4pm today (Tuesday) to finalise the name of the next chief justice among the three senior-most judges of the apex court with two-thirds majority.

Over the committee’s recommendation, the prime minister will send the nomination to the president for final approval.

If any of the three senior-most judge declines the position, the next senior judge will be considered for the top slot. Currently, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah is the most senior judge, followed by Justice Munib Akhtar, and Justice Yahya Afridi.

Under the newly enacted law, the CJP’s term has been fixed at three years unless they reach the retirement age of 65, resigns sooner or is removed from office following changes to Article 179.

Moreover, if a top jurist has not reached 65 years age, he would still stand retired after completion of his three-year tenure.

Additionally, the selection of the chief justice will no longer be based solely on seniority, and instead, the choice will be made among the three most senior judges of the Supreme Court.

In another development, PM Shehbaz summoned a key session of federal cabinet today (Tuesday) “with an agenda to approve the parliamentary committee’s recommendations for the appointment of chief justice”, sources told Geo News.

Brief overview of three SC judges

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, senior puisne judge, is the senior-most judge on the seniority list who can be named as the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) after Qazi Faez Isa's retirement on October 25 as the top judge.

After serving as the Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice for almost two years, Justice Shah was elevated to the SC in early 2018.

Born in 1963, Justice Munib Akhtar, was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2018 and he is the second senior-most judge on the seniority list to be selected for the post of the chief justice.

As per the seniority list, Justice Yahya Afridi is the third senior-most judge and he served as the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) chief justice from December 30, 2016, until his elevation to the SC in 2018.