 Qazi Faez Isa){kind=link}
The Supreme Court’s full bench reopened the hearing of petitions contesting the SC (Practise and Procedure) Act.
SC resumes hearing: A bench composed of all 15 members of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, is hearing the appeals.
PTV has placed cameras inside Courtroom No. 1, and state television will broadcast the highly anticipated case live. At 9:30 am, the hearing got under way.
The full court bench, led by CJP Isa, includes Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A. Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, and Justice Musarrat Hilali.
The chief justice stated at the outset of today’s hearing that the statute applied to the CJP and the SC’s two seniormost judges. He further stated that future chief justices and senior judges of the supreme court would likewise be subject to the statute.
Justice Isa elaborated, saying that he believed he shouldn’t have been on the bench, but that since the statute affects all of the justices of the supreme court, a complete court will hear the case.
undermines the judiciary’s independence
Before the hearing, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) submitted additional documents and filed a separate application to have them included in the case record.
According to the petition, the Constitution explicitly outlines the authority of the executive, legislative branch, and judicial branch based on the concept of the trichotomy of powers.
The SC (Practise and Procedure) Act, according to the document, threatens the independence of the judiciary and was an effort by the PDM government to meddle in judicial issues by establishing a parallel system with the highest court.
The argument asserts that laws violating fundamental rights and the independence of the judiciary cannot be upheld, and the constitution of Pakistan specifies the authority of the SC and the chief justice.
The petition additionally argues that legislation related to the Supreme Court cannot pass while the Supreme Court Rules, 1980, remain in effect.
It is important to remember that during the last session, a larger bench of 15 judges, chaired by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, heard petitions challenging the law restricting the CJP’s authority.
At the meeting, the CJP stated that the Act passed by parliament does not transfer the power of the chief judge to a three-person committee.
The 15-member full court bench quickly lifted the stay order on the Act’s implementation.