The process of forming the parliamentary committee for the appointment of the Chief Justice of Pakistan has started and the Speaker National Assembly has asked the names of the committee members from the parliamentary leaders.
After the approval of the Senate and the National Assembly yesterday, the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill has now become a law as a result of the President’s signature on the summary sent by the Prime Minister today.
With the implementation of this law, the procedure for appointing the Chief Justice has also changed, where before the Chief Justice, the most senior judge of the Supreme Court was appointed to this position, but now with the 26th constitutional amendment. The resulting law has changed the situation.
In the light of the new law, a committee comprising members of the government and the opposition of the National Assembly and the Senate will be formed which will send a final name to the Prime Minister for the post of Chief Justice after consultation on the names of the three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court. And the Prime Minister will send this name to the President for approval.
In this context, Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq has asked the parliamentary leaders for the names of the committee members regarding the formation of the parliamentary committee for the appointment of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
The committee will have 8 members from the National Assembly and 4 members from the Senate.
As soon as the committee is formed, a panel of 3 senior judges will be called from the Ministry of Law.
It should be noted that the tenure of Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa is ending on October 25 and under the new law, the committee will be formed three days before the tenure of the Chief Justice.
It should be remembered that the session of the National Assembly which was convened at 6 pm on Sunday started after several hours of delay at 11:30 pm under the chairmanship of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq which was adjourned at approximately 11:58 pm. The resumption took place at 12:05 PM and continued until 5:00 AM on Monday morning.
In the session of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister of Law Nazir Tarar presented a motion to present the amendment, 225 members of the assembly voted for the approval of the motion while 12 members voted against it.
The amendment was then approved clause-by-clause, 4 independent members reportedly supported by Tehreek-e-Insaaf voted in favor of the constitutional amendments, Usman Ali, Mubarak Zeb Khan, Zahoor Qureshi, Aurangzeb Khachi and Muslim League (Q) Chaudhry. Elias voted in favor of the amendments.
Speaking in the House after the approval of the bill, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that people in the country are yearning for justice, today is a historic day.
He had said that today the 26th amendment to the constitution has been passed, governments were sent home, prime ministers were sent home, a wonderful example of national unity and consensus was once again established.
Earlier, the Upper House of the country approved the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill with a two-thirds majority in a meeting presided over by Chairman Senate Yousuf Raza Gilani.
