Another Supreme Court Judge raises questions over CJP orders
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[image: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar. PHOTO: FILE]
ISLAMABAD - Another Supreme Court judge has called into question the May 2018 reconstitution of an apex court bench by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar and called the decision ‘unwarranted and unprecedented’.
The CJP reconstituted a bench, hearing various public interest cases at the SC Peshawar Registry on May 9, 2018.
The bench headed by the CJP earlier comprised Justice Isa and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah. However, during the hearing, the CJP announced reconstitution of the bench by excluding Justice Isa.
Later, Justice Isa issued a three-page note, raising serious questions over reconstitution of the bench. After the passage of seven months, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah has also endorsed Justice Isa’s objections.
“The reconstitution of the two-member bench and the proceedings before the said bench on 9th May, 2018 in all the cases fixed before it are void and non-est. I agree with my learned brother Qazi Faez Isa, J that the reconstitution of the bench by the Hon’ble Chief Justice in the present case is unwarranted and unprecedented and undermines the integrity of the system,” he says in a six-page note.
Justice Shah says in the absence of a recusal by a member of the bench, any amount of disagreement amongst the members of the bench on an issue before them, cannot form a valid ground for reconstitution of the bench, adding that any reconstitution on this ground would impinge on the constitutional value of independence of judiciary.
