‘Split’ JCP defers 5 judges elevation to SC

ISLAMABAD    -    The Judicial Commission of Paki­stan (JCP) on Thursday deferred the elevation of judges of various high courts to the Supreme Court.

According to a press release issued by the Supreme Court media section, a meeting of the commission to consider names of judges of various high courts proposed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan for the nomination by the JCP to be appointed as judg­es of the Supreme Court of Paki­stan was held here.

The meeting was attended by seven members of the JCP in-person while Justice Qazi Faez Isa and the Attorney Gen­eral for Pakistan attended via zoom. The names of all five judg­es proposed by the Chief Justice were considered by the JCP.

After detailed discussion, it was proposed by the Chairman JCP to defer the meet­ing in order to enable the Chief Justice of Pakistan to place additional infor­mation and data about those already proposed and if he considered ap­propriate, more names would be added to the list of proposees for consid­eration by the JCP.

The proposal to de­fer the meeting was sup­ported by Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice (Retd) Sar­mad Jalal Osmany, and the Attorney General for Pakistan. It was accord­ingly decided to defer the meeting. The date of the next meeting will be com­municated to the mem­bers of the judicial com­mission by the Chairman JCP, said a press note is­sued by SC PRO.

However, sources said that the JCP meeting was deferred after the pro­posed names of high courts judges were re­jected by the five out of nine members of the commission.

They said that during the meeting, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Federal Law Minister Azam Na­zeer Tarar, Attorney Gen­eral for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf and Pakistan Bar Council’s representative opposed the nomination.

The JCP considered the names of Chief Justice Pe­shawar High Court Qaisar Rashid Khan, Sindh High Court judges – Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui, Justice Naimat­ullah Phulpoto, and Jus­tice Shahid Waheed of La­hore High Court to fill the existing vacancies in the Supreme Court.

However, the JCP re­jected all the nominated judges of higher courts for their appointment to the Supreme Court.

It has been learnt that SC Judges including Qazi Faez Isa, Sardar Tariq Masood, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Attorney Gener­al for Pakistan (AGP) Ashtar Ausaf Ali and Pa­kistan Bar Council rep­resentative Akhtar Hus­sain did not approve the CJP nominations. They supported the se­niority principle.