Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has officially decided to become a part of the Judges Appointment Commission, two names to represent the opposition in the Judicial Commission will be announced after the approval of Imran Khan.
The declaration of the special meeting of the political committee of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has been issued.
According to the declaration, PTI has officially decided to become a part of the ‘Judicial Commission of Pakistan’ while it was agreed to nominate members from both houses of the Parliament for the Judicial Commission.
In the declaration, it was said that in the political committee meeting, a comprehensive briefing was given on the nominations of two members for the Judicial Commission by the opposition and the letter of the Speaker of the National Assembly in this regard.
The briefing said that the responsibilities of the 13-member Judicial Commission have been increased. The Judicial Commission will appoint judges in the Supreme Court, High Courts and the Federal Shariat Court.
The participants of the meeting were told that the Judicial Commission will monitor the performance of the High Court judges and prepare their annual performance report while the Commission is empowered to suggest suitable names for the High Court judges.
It was informed in the briefing that the same Judicial Commission will also establish benches in the High Court and the Supreme Court, one-third of the members of the commission can call a meeting of the commission while the decisions of the 13-member commission will be taken by a simple majority of the members.
The PTI Political Committee was informed that as per Clause D, the absence of a member will not affect the credibility of the decision of the Commission and despite the absence, the decision of the Commission will be considered valid.
It was said in the briefing that the Judicial Commission of Pakistan will be a long-term commission, the role of two members of the opposition in the decision-making of the commission is very important.
Later, the proposal of the PTI Political Committee to become part of the Judicial Commission was unanimously approved.
After formal approval from Imran Khan of the two names proposed to represent the opposition in the commission, the announcement was fully agreed.
Besides, the party’s categorical and principled stand regarding the 26th constitutional amendment was also reiterated in the meeting.
It should be noted that for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has been elected by a parliamentary committee, before that, in the light of the decision of the Al-Jihad Trust case, the most senior judge of the Supreme Court was the Chief Justice of the country.
Before the approval of the 26th constitutional amendment, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was to become the next Chief Justice of Pakistan under the principle of seniority, however, on October 22, the majority of the Special Parliamentary Committee for the appointment of the Chief Justice of Pakistan appointed Justice Yahya Afridi as the next Chief Justice of Pakistan. Was nominated.
Most of the amendments in the 26th Constitutional Amendment are in Article 175-A, which deals with the process of appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, High Courts and the Federal Shariat Court.
The Judicial Commission of Pakistan used to send its nominations for each post of Supreme Court High Court or Federal Shariat Court Judges to an 8-member Parliamentary Committee which forwarded the names to the Prime Minister and then to the President. The commission will now forward its nominations directly to the Prime Minister who will forward them to the President for appointment.
After the amendment, the Special Parliamentary Committee will include 8 members from the National Assembly and 4 members from the Senate.