Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood Saturday wrote aletter to the Honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial for theappointment of judges on the vacant seats in the Supreme Court, reported24NewsHD TV channel.
Both the members of the judicial commission demanded convening a meeting ofall the judges in the Judicial Commission of Pakistan and the Chief Justiceto fulfil the constitutional obligation and to keep the constitutionalcourts fully functional in order to ensure speedy dispensation of justiceacross the country and mainly to prevent any rumours and speculation aboutpetty politics from rising.
In a letter dated October 7, they explained that a JCP meeting should“automatically be scheduled” at the earliest in case of any vacancy in theapex court to fulfil the constitutional obligation under Article 175A(8) ofthe Constitution that states: “The commission by a majority of its totalmembership shall nominate to the Parliamentary Committee one person, foreach vacancy of a Judge in the Supreme Court, a High Court or the FederalShariat Court, as the case may be.”
The judges said that it was the responsibility of every JCP member toensure vacancies in the courts were timely filled out and any inordinatedelay in this would be “unfortunate and undesirable”.
The letter said there were currently five vacancies in the apex court sinceFebruary, adding that they had “time and time again requested” the CJP tohold a JCP meeting to fill the vacancies but their meetings with him on thesubject “ended in vain”.
It was also written in the letter that a senior judge Justice Qazi Faiz Isawrote a letter to the Chief Justice on the 28th of September which bore nofruit and the earlier meetings of both the judges with him also ended invain.
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According to the rules, a new judge should be appointed within 30 days ofthe retirement of the former one and yet even after nine months of theseats being vacant, the seats in the Supreme Court are still vacant.
They said in the letter that is the responsibility of Chief JusticePakistan to ensure that seats in the Supreme Court are not left vacant. TheJCP is not Supreme Court but an independent Constitutional body.
In the end, the letter-writing judges suggested that the Chief Justices ofthe High Courts should be considered. They gave another suggestion that twoSenior Judges from every High Court be considered.
