ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court would hear petitions filed against bill reducing powers of Chief Justice of Pakistan on May 2. An eight-member bench of SC-CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Sayyad Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed would take petitions.

Advocate Muhammad Shafay Munir, Raja Amer Khan and Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain filed petitions under Article 184(3). Petitions argued that Supreme Court was an independent body and all judges, including CJP, should exercise their powers without any interference from other institution.

According to petitions, Supreme Court and its corpus as defined in Article 176 consist of CJP and so many other judges as may be determined by Parliament or, until so determined as may be fixed by President. It is clear that CJP is centrifugal force and entire fabric of apex court is webbed around it. Independence of judiciary and of each of judges and its CJP is declared as an aim enunciated in preamble to Constitution; same is part of the objective resolution and thus substantive part of constitution, petitions emphasised.

SC led by CJP with its judges, must be independent of all executive or legislative transgress so as to perform their constitutional obligations in providing justice to people of Pakistan.

Bill, titled Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 is aimed at depriving office of CJP of powers to take suo motu notice in an individual capacity.

Published in The Daily National Courier, May, 01 2023

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