Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faiz Isa has explained that the journalist Arshad Sharif murder case has not been set before a 5-member larger bench because it does not require any kind of constitutional interpretation.
The Chief Justice explained these reasons while presiding over the meeting of the three-member committee for assigning cases under the Supreme Court Practitioner and Procedure Act, 2023 on August 1 hearing.
The meeting was held after a hearing by a three-member bench headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, which referred the Arshad Sharif case back to the committee on the ground that it was earlier heard by a five-member larger bench and now the case should be fixed for hearing before a bench consisting of the same number of judges.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the Chief Justice of Pakistan said that unless a case requires clarification of constitutional points, it need not be fixed for hearing before a 5-member bench and such cases can be heard by a regular bench. .
Other members of the committee, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Muneeb Akhtar, were of the view that the case was heard earlier by a five-member bench, so a similar bench could be reconstituted.
Both the judges disagreed with the reasons given by the Chief Justice, following which the committee decided to set the case before a 5-member bench comprising Justice Jamal Khan Mandukhel, Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A. Malik, Justice Athar Minullah and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi will join.
The committee also considered a letter written by ad-hoc judges Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Mazhar Alam Khan Mian Khel on July 30, requesting that more cases be scheduled before them.
Further, the ad-hoc judges recently appointed to deal with the pending cases in the Supreme Court say that only 10 cases have been scheduled before them so far which were decided in 70 minutes. Later the committee decided to schedule more cases before ad hoc judges, for which the registrar has identified 1100 old cases.
The committee consists of the Shariat Appellate Bench, which includes Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Justice Shahid Bilal Hasan and Ulema members Dr. Muhammad Khalid Masood and Dr. Qibla Ayaz.
