ISLAMABAD    -    The Supreme Court of Pakistan will today con­duct hearing in petitions against the Supreme Court (Practice and Pro­cedure) Bill, 2023.

An eight-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Jus­tice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muham­mad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A Malik, Jus­tice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Sha­hid Waheed will con­duct hearing of the pe­titions wherein it had already issued notices to the respondents, At­torney General for Paki­stan, two top bodies of lawyers, and the polit­ical parties. The bench in its written order had stated that prima faciethe contentions raised dis­close that there is a substan­tial, immediate and direct interference with the indepen­dence of the judiciary in the form of multiple intrusions, in the guise of regulating the practice and procedure of this court and conferring upon it a jurisdiction that appears not to be permissible under any constitutional provision. It noted, “Such intermeddling in the functioning of the Court, even on the most tentative as­sessment, will commence as soon as the Bill becomes the Act. Accordingly, in our view an interim measure ought to be put in place, in the nature of an anticipatory injunction. The making of such an injunc­tion, to prevent imminent ap­prehended danger that is ir­reparable, is an appropriate remedy, recognized in our jurisprudence and other juris­dictions that follow the same legal principles and laws. The order added, “It is therefore hereby directed and ordered as follows. The moment that the Bill receives the assent of the President or (as the case may be) it is deemed that such assent has been given, then from that very moment on­wards and till further orders, the Act that comes into being shall not have, take or be given any effect nor be acted upon in any manner.”