National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq notified on Monday a 12-member committee, including PTI lawmakers, for the nomination of the next chief justice of Pakistan. This new way of process emerged with President Asif Ali Zardari’s assent to the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

Members were selected “as per nominations by the respective parliamentary leaders based on their strength in Parliament,” said a notification from the NA Secretariat.

Here are members of the committee: PML-N MNA Khawaja Asif, PML-N MNA Ahsan Iqbal, PML-N MNA Shaista Pervaiz Malik, PPP MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf, PPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar, MQM-P Rana Ansar, SIC MNA Gohar Ali Khan, SIC MNA Sahibzada Muhammad Hamid Raza, PPP Senator Farooq Hamid Naek, PML-N Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar, SIC Senator Syed Ali Zafar, and JUI-F Senator Kamran Murtaza.

An in-camera meeting of the Special Parliamentary Committee would be held on Tuesday (today) at 4pm in the Constitution Room, Parliament House in Islamabad.

The committee will consider the names of the most senior judges, including Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, and Justice Yahya Afridi, for the new chief justice position. The committee will make its decision based on a two-thirds majority vote.

26th Constitutional Amendment

The government narrowly passed constitutional amendments on Monday giving lawmakers more power to appoint top judges, who have issued a series of recent decisions favouring opposition chief Imran Khan.

The 26th Constitutional Amendment introduced several reforms focused primarily on the judiciary. Key changes include the removal of the Supreme Court’s suo motu powers, the establishment of a three-year term for the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), and the authority granted to the prime minister to appoint the next CJP from the three most senior judges of the Supreme Court.

The Senate approved the bill, which contained 22 clauses, with a two-thirds majority on Sunday. Subsequently, the National Assembly, in a session that extended past 5am on Monday, passed an amended version of the bill with 27 clauses, reflecting suggestions made by the Senate.

Among the many changes in the act, the highest number of tweaks are to Article 175A, which deals with the process of appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, high courts and the Federal Shariat Court.

Under amendments to clause 3 of Article 175A, instead of the president appointing the “most senior judge of the Supreme Court” as the CJP, the top judge will now be “appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior” SC judges.

Names submitted

In separate letters, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had sought names from the Senate chairman and parliamentary leaders for the committee. The 12-member committee will consist of eight members from the lower house and four from the upper house of Parliament.

The Pakistan Peoples Party had submitted two names from the National Assembly and one from the Senate for the parliamentary committee.

Sources said that party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has proposed Raja Pervez Ashraf and Syed Naveed Qamar as candidates from the NA. Moreover, the PPP forwarded Farooq H Naek’s to the Senate chairman.

The Sunni Ittehad Council has finalised three names. It has nominated PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan and Sahibzada Hamid Raza for the parliamentary committee and Ali Zafar, who will represent the party from the Senate.

The JUI-F has nominated Senator Kamran Murtaza as a member of the parliamentary committee, with Maulana Attaur Rehman submitting his name to the Senate Secretariat.

Meanwhile, the PML-N has proposed Azam Nazeer Tarar for the parliamentary committee from the Senate. Irfan Siddiqui, the parliamentary leader of PML-N, has sent the name to the Senate chairman.

Following the formation of the committee, the law ministry would be asked to provide a panel of three senior judges.

After President Zardari’s approval, the gazette notification for the 26th Constitutional Amendment was issued. It is now officially an Act of Parliament.

Under the judicial reforms passed during an early morning session of parliament, Pakistan’s chief justice will now be selected by a parliamentary committee and have a fixed term of three years.

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The amendments come just days before CJP Qazi Faez Isa is due to retire.

Under the previous law, he would have been automatically replaced by the next most senior judge – currently Mansoor Ali Shah, who has consistently issued verdicts deemed favourable to Khan and his party.

New benches will also be formed of senior judges from across the country to weigh exclusively on constitutional issues, at the core of disputes between the government and PTI in the Supreme Court.