ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) has included a new clause into Article 68 of the constitution to empower the parliamentary committee on appointment of judges to discuss the conduct of a judge, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt.
The clause was not touched previously while drafting the 18th Amendment.
Under the new proposal, the bar on parliamentarians to discuss the conduct of judges would continue, but the parliamentary committee would be allowed to discuss the same.
The committee also approved the recommendations of the Supreme Court to enhance the strength of Supreme Court judges in the Judicial Commission from two to four and now four senior-most judges of the SC, besides the chief justice of Pakistan, will be members of the committee.
The PCCR’s report, which will be annexed with the 19th Amendment Bill 2010, is likely to be tabled in the National Assembly session today (Tuesday).
A source revealed that the committee recommended that if the functional committee rejected the nomination of a judge with three-fourths votes (six of eight members) with valid reasons, the committee’s decision would be final. The source said the committee had decided to approve the recommendation to strengthen the membership of the Judicial Commission. And in the same line, the parliamentary committee would also be given full authority to appoint judges.
In its decision of October 21, the SC said if the parliamentary committee rejected the nomination of a judge with valid reason, the Judicial Commission would review it and if reconsidered the same nomination, the judicial commission would have the final authority and the president would appoint the judge on the recommendation of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan.
However, the source said the parliamentary committee did not agree to the recommendation and proposed that it would undermine the supremacy of parliament.
He said it was also decided to introduce the role of the prime minister in the appointment of judges and committee recommended that in case of rejection or confirmation of the nomination of judges, the names would be sent to the prime minister, who would send the names to the president for appointment.
The committee also approved SC’s recommendation that the proceedings of the parliamentary committee would be held in-camera.
