ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court dismissed on Wednesday the government’s review petition against an apex court verdict that had overruled the Parliamentary Committee’s decision to reject a one-year extension in the services of six additional judges of the Lahore High Court and Sindh High Court.
“We are not inclined to review the judgement,” a four-member special bench comprising Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, said in its short order after hearing the government’s arguments in the review petition against the March 4 decision.
The same bench had overruled the Parliamentary Committee’s decision to reject the service extensions and told the federal government to issue notifications granting the judges another year of service. Resuming his arguments on Wednesday, Makhdoom Ali Khan, counsel for the LHC judges, rebutted Additional Attorney General KK Agha’s claim that the Parliamentary Committee was constitutionally empowered to accept or reject the recommendations of the Judicial Commission.
He argued the commission had primacy over the decision of the Parliamentary Committee. He said the commission was a forum that could rightly decide cases of judges. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja stated that an eight-member Parliamentary Committee was not above the constitution, adding that a committee of a few parliamentarians could not be given the powers of parliament.
Justice Khilji Arif Hussain said parliamentary committees, formed under the constitution, were answerable to parliament as well. After hearing the counsels for the government and the respondents, the court reserved its verdict for a short time and later, just after reassembling, announced its short order.
The same bench would hear a case next week for initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the law secretary for not implementing the apex court’s earlier orders on the judges’ extension, Online news agency reported.
