Parliament has submitted the names of the Judicial Commission (JCP) nominees to the Supreme Court, aiming for balanced representation between the government and the opposition.
The Chairman of the Senate, Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, instructed the Supreme Court Registrar to forward the nominations, advised by both the Leader of the House, Senator Ishaq Dar and the Leader of the Opposition, Senator Shibli Faraz. The nominees from the Senate are Senator Farooq H. Naek for the government and Senator Shibli Faraz for the opposition.
Similarly, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, relayed nominations from the lower house to the Supreme Judicial Commission. The National Assembly’s reserved women’s seat nominees include Opposition Leader Omar Ayub, Sheikh Aftab of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, and Roshan Khorasani Brocha.
A spokesperson for the National Assembly confirmed that following the 26th Amendment, the JCP will now consist of five parliamentary members. The names have been forwarded to the Secretary of the Judicial Commission.
The Supreme Court has now received these nominations, having achieved cross-party consultation by Speaker Sadiq and Chairman Senate Gillani.
The revised Article 175-A delineates the composition of a 13-member judicial commission. This commission includes the Chief Justice, the three most senior judges of the Supreme Court, the most senior judge of the constitutional benches, the Law Minister, the Attorney General of Pakistan, a nominee from the Pakistan Bar Council, two members each from the National Assembly and the Senate, and a woman or non-Muslim from outside parliament. This commission appoints Supreme Court, high courts, and Federal Shariat Court judges.
The Senate’s Justice Committee recently endorsed a bill to increase the number of Supreme Court judges from 17 to 25, despite resistance from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).
