A meeting of the Supreme Court’s Practice and Procedure Judges Committee ran into a hurdle on Tuesday after Justice Mansoor Ali Shah did not attend.
Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Aminuddin Khan waited for the senior pusine judge for a siginificant time, according to sources.
The committee had met to reconstitute a bench to hear the appeals against Article 63-A of the constitution.
CJP Isa proposed Justice Mansoor Ali Shah’s name for the bench in place of Justice Munib Akhtar, who had announced that he would not sit on the bench.
However, since Justice Mansoor did not attend the meeting, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan was added to the bench.
As soon as the hearing began, PTI’s lawyer Ali Zafar raise dobjections to the composition of the bench. However, the CJP told him his objections would be heard later.
CJP Isa then recounted the whole matter from Justice Mnuib’s refusal, to a new committee meeting where the decision to add Justice Afghan to the bench was taken.
Justice Isa said that he was left with no choice but to nominate the new judge. He also said that what was happening in the court was open to the entire world and was not happening behind closed doors.
He also added that the minutes of the meeting where the decision had been taken had been uploaded on the SC website.
