Supreme Court judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah has penned another letter to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan secretary ahead of the upcoming meeting, it emerged on Saturday.

In the letter, the SC judge said that there should be a mechanism for the appointment of judges to the constitutional bench within the rules. He highlighted the necessity of determining how many judges should be included in a constitutional bench.

The constitutional bench was formed after the government narrowly passed constitutional amendments on October 21 giving lawmakers more power to appoint top judges. It also changed the appointment process of the chief justice of Pakistan which was earlier based on the seniority principle.

Under the reforms, new benches would comprise 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.

Last week, senior puisne judge Justice Shah called on the JCP to finalise “clear and transparent rules” for appointing judges to constitutional courts. In his detailed letter to JCP’s rule-making committee head Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, he warned that any appointments without such a framework would be unconstitutional and could undermine the judiciary’s independence.

In response, Justice Mandokhail stated that his suggestions have already been incorporated in the draft rules and agreed that judiciary members should be impartial.

There should be criteria for the inclusion of judges in the constitutional bench, Justice Shah said and added that one possible criterion could be the number of constitutional interpretation decisions authored by a particular judge.

He pointed out that the JCP has already formed constitutional benches in the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court “without any established criteria”. The apex court judge provided his overall opinion regarding the rules related to the appointment of judges.

He expressed his opposition to the practice of soliciting reports from intelligence agencies, warning that granting such agencies a role could lead to misuse. The Judicial Commission already has a majority of executive influence, the judge said.

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Furthermore, he clarified his position regarding the 26th Constitutional Amendment, stating that a full court should first be established to review the amendment.

Justice Shah emphasised that the rules for the appointment of judges should reflect the protection and defence of the Constitution. He asserted that his opinion on the “matter is contingent upon the determination of the constitutional status” of both the amendment and the commission.