Islamabad:
The meetings of the subcommittees of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) led by Judge Jamal Khan Commandkhail have been scheduled for August 21 to prepare draft rules for the annual judicial performance evaluation of the judges of the superior courts, as well as the criteria for the selection of judges for the constitutional bacults.
The president of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi had previously formed two committees led by Judge Commandkhail. Other members include Pakistan Attorney General (AGP) Mansoor Awan, Senator Farooq H Naek (of Treasury Banks), Senator Ali Zafar (of opposition banks) and the representative of the Pakistan Bar Council Ahsan Bhoon.
The first committee was to write proposed rules to establish effective standards for the annual performance evaluation of the judges of the Superior Court by virtue of article 175a (20) of the Constitution, inserted through the 26th constitutional amendment.
The CJP had constituted this committee during the JCP meeting on June 19.
Previously, the CJP Aphridi had also formed a committee that included the same members to write an objective criterion to select judges for constitutional banks.
A notification issued in this regard stated that, in the light of the President’s decisions during three JCP meetings held on February 28, the Committee had the task of writing objective criteria for the appointment of judges under clause (4) of article 175a of the Constitution and for the selection of judges for constitutional banks under the articles of 191-A and 202-A.
Interestingly, the JCP had decided to form a rules committee in January, and the CJP YAHYA Aphridi issued its notification on March 4. However, the Committee has not held any meeting during the last five months.
Since then, legal experts have questioned why the Committee was not constituted immediately after the approval of the 26th. Since their promulgation, the judges of the Supreme Court and the constitutional banks of the Superior Court of Sindh have been appointed without a structured selection process.
However, the Government has been completely satisfied with the performance of the constitutional banks of the Supreme Court, which supported the trial of civilians in the military courts, approved the transfer of judges of different courts superior to the Superior Court of Islamabad, and annulled the decision of the reserved seats that had declared the PTI right to the seats reserved after the general elections 2024.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Bank has not yet taken requests challenging its own creation. The lawyers have also asked questions about the wisdom and logic behind the nomination of a particular set of judges for constitutional banks, noting that judges received as critics of the current regime are often excluded.
Lawyer Rida Hosain expressed surprise that a judge raised only a few days could be nominated for a constitutional bank, while several judges of the high -level Supreme Court with extensive constitutional experience were not. In the absence of clear criteria, he pointed out that such nominations seem arbitrary.
Shortly after the approval of the 26th Constitutional amendment, the senior judge of Puisne Syed Mansoor Ali Shah had asked to establish clear guidelines to nominate and determine the number of judges in constitutional banks.
“The Commission has already nominated and determined several judges of the Supreme Court and the Sindh Superior Court for the CBS in the absence of any current mechanism or criteria,” Judge Shah wrote in a nine -page letter to the JCP secretary in December last year.
“Therefore, there has been no logic or backup reason for the nomination and determination of the number of judges for the CBS.” Judge Shah emphasized that the nominations under articles 191a and 202a of the Constitution cannot be made in a vacuum, and that the JCP must first establish objective criteria through the proposed rules.
He suggested that such criteria could include the number of constitutional trials reported created by a judge, including additional dissidents or notes, while serve in larger banks that listened to significant constitutional cases.
