ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms’ (PCCR) decision rejecting one critical recommendation of the Supreme Court on Article 175A relating to appointment of judges is most likely to be re-examined by the SC before giving a final judgement in January.
Commenting on PCCR’s rejection of the SC’s proposal of giving the judicial commission the right to overrule the decision of the parliamentary committee, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said,
“Under Al-Jihad Trust case, all recommendations will remain justiciable… the Supreme Court can always examine whether the sons are borne out by the record or not.” Another constitutional expert, SM Zafar said it would not be easy to overrule the recommendations of the SC
in practical terms because the parliamentary body would need six of the eight members to reject any recommendation of the judicial commission, knowing that they have to give substantive reasons. “The principle of the independent judiciary has be taken into account while giving all recommendations for constitutional amendment and it would not be easy for the parliamentary body to overrule the recommendations of the judicial commission,” Zafar said.
Justice (r) Tariq Mahmood said, “Parliament is sovereign to make amendments and on the matter of nominations independence of judiciary cannot be questioned… at the stage of nomination, no one is a judge then how it can be said that this will affect independence of the judiciary.” Munir A Malik said the SC had yet to give a final decision in this case.
“If anything contrary to the constitution is legislated, the court can strike it down,” he said, adding that the interim order was not the final judgement. However, PCCR member Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmed said confrontation between the parliament and the judiciary was not likely, as the parliamentary body had incorporated most of the recommendations of the Supreme Court.
Asked that the court had said in its interim order that selection process was likely to affect the independence of judiciary as it empowered the parliamentary body to overrule the nominations of the judicial commission in approving judges’ appointment, Professor Ahmed said the judges were selected in various countries by the offices of political nature. “Judges are appointed by the Senate in Germany and by the president in the US and there the judiciary is much more independent than ours. No one ever raised any objection there regarding the independence of the judiciary,” Khurshid said.
MNA and president of his own faction of the PPP Aftab Sherpao also said no confrontation was likely to take place and no one in the committee wanted to have a standoff between the judiciary and parliament. “I cannot give you details as the meeting was held in camera but I can confirm that the judges’ selection procedure will be in accordance with the constitutional provisions.”
