ISLAMABAD: The new Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Yahya Afridi, surprised many people by taking some important steps on his first day in office.
He reconstituted the Requisition Committee by exercising the powers conferred by the Ordinance under the amendment to the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Act. He will chair the committee himself and he has included Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Muneeb Akhtar as other members.
The Chief Justice also convened a meeting of the full court on Monday, October 28 at 1 pm. He has also called a meeting of the Administrative Judges of the Anti-Terrorist Courts in the Supreme Court on November 7 and has also asked for a progress report in this regard. The most important thing is that the meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council was called on November 8.
The agenda of the meeting is yet to be released, but lawyers believe that the Chief Justice wants to ensure that agencies are not allowed to interfere in the functioning of the judiciary. It may be recalled that six judges of the Islamabad High Court had written a letter seeking guidance from the Supreme Judicial Council regarding the intervention of agencies. In this regard, instead of solving the issue, former Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa had expressed his desire to form an inquiry commission to investigate the allegations of the judges of the Islamabad High Court.
After that, 100 proceedings were initiated which are still ongoing. Justice Yahya Afridi has said that the issue raised by the High Court judges should be reviewed under the code of conduct of the Supreme Judicial Council.
It is also important that the Supreme Judicial Council has complaints of misconduct against the judges of the Superior Courts, especially the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court, the Chief Election Commissioner and other members of the Election Commission. Interestingly, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Muneeb Akhtar are also members of the Supreme Judicial Council.
Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court and Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court are also members of the Council. On the other hand, the government is planning to increase the number of Supreme Court judges. The government also wants a constitution bench of like-minded judges. However, lawyers believe that the Chief Justice should be the presiding judge of the Constitution Bench.
