ISLAMABAD – After recent meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan(JCP) held to discuss elevation of judges to the country’s top court wasmarred by controversy, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has released an audioof the meeting for the first time in its judicial history to clarify thesituation.
The development comes after two members of JCP – Justice Qazi Faez Isa andJustice Tariq Masood – contested a press release issued by top court’spublic relation officer, stating that the meeting had been deferred toenable the Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to place additionalinformation and data about those already proposed and if he considersappropriate, add more names to the list of proposees for considerations.
Both judges claimed that the meeting had disapproved the nominations ofjudges, proposed by the CJP, for elevation to the apex court. In theirletters to JCP, they called for released the “correct detailed minutes” ofthe meetings, adding that the chief justice “did not dictate the decisionsthat were taken, and left the meeting quite abruptly, followed by JusticeIjaz-ul-Ahsan”.
The situation prompted the chief justice of Pakistan to relax JCP rules andissued an audio of the two-hour-long meeting.
“In these exceptional circumstances the Hon’ble chairman JCP has beenpleased to relax the restriction under Rule 5(4) of the JCP Rules, 2010 andhas directed for the audio recording of the JCP proceedings of 28.07.2022to be made available on the official website of the SCP,” the top courtsaid in a fresh press release.
It said that the “audio recording from time slot 1:29:45 to 1:38:08contains the statement” made by Attorney-General for Pakistan Ashtar AusafAli, led to the deferment of the meeting as claimed by the PRO.
The statement added that the AGP “did not assess or reject the merits ofany of the High Court judges proposed for appointment to the SCP”.
“As a result, 5 members of the JCP supported the deferment of the meetingas reported in the Press Note of 28.07.2022,” said the SCP.
The JCP meeting was held to consider elevation of Peshawar High Court ChiefJustice Qaiser Rasheed Khan, Justice Shahid Waheed of the Lahore HighCourt, and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqand Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto from the Sindh High Court to the apexcourt.
What is in the audio?
As per the audio, Justice (retd) Sarmad Jalal Osmany opposed the elevationof Sindh High Court’s Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto to the top court andaccepted other four nominations. He cannot be heard saying the world deferin the audio.
Read Top Stories
Both Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Ijazul Ahsan approved all the fivenominations made by the chief justice of Pakistan. They also did not callfor adjourning the meeting as it was mentioned in the top court’s pressrelease about JCP meeting.
When Justice Sardar Tariq Masood was asked to express his opinion, hestressed on following the seniority principle for the elevation of thejudges.
Justice Masood can also be heard saying that if one judge is being giventhe right to nominate their successor, then everyone should be given thatright, but clarified that this is against the Constitution.
He also suggested that Islamabad High Court’s Justice Athar Minallah andJustice Ahmed Shaikh should be considered for elevation.
At the end, Justice Masood opposed all the nominations made by the CJP andcalled for adjourning the meeting until an issued releated to the seniorityprinciple of chief justice of Peshawar High Court is settled.
The AGP also endorsed the disapproval of nominees by Justice Tariq Masoodand called for deferring the meeting.
When PBC representative Akhtar Hussain was asked to speak, he also opposedall the nominations.
Justice Isa also rejected the nomination and at this point of the audio,CJP Bandial left the meeting abruptly.
