The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is likely to meet soon to give recommendations for appointing judges to the four vacant seats in the Supreme Court. The sanctioned strength of Supreme Court judges is 17, including the CJ, however currently only 13 judges are performing their functions. Due to shortage of judges, the backlog of cases is multiplying. The offices fell vacant after the retirement of Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed on June 1, Justice Javed Iqbal on August 1, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui on October 13 and ad-hoc judge Justice Ghulam Rabbani on October 19 while Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain, being a PCO judge, had resigned. Justice Muhammad Sair Ali would also be laying his robes down on December 11 this year.
The JCP, which became functional after the passage of 18th Amendment will meet soon to give recommendations for elevation of senior most judges of the high courts to the SC to complete the sanctioned strength. The JCP will send its recommendation to the Parliamentary Committee for further consideration. The required constitutional strength of 17-judges will be completed soon as the apex court also has to take up important constitutional issues pending before it. Among the retired judges Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui belonged to Punjab, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed from Balochistan and Justice Ghulam Rabbani from Sindh. Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain also belonged to Punjab.
The 13 judges currently working in the SC include CJ Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (Balochistan), Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan (KP), Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jillani (Punjab), Justice Nasirul Mulk (KP), Justice Muhammad Sair Ali (Punjab), Justice Jawwad S Khawaja (Punjab), Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali (Sindh), Justice Khilji Arif Hussain (Sindh), Justice Tariq Parvez Khan (KP), Justice Mian Saqib Nisar (Punjab), Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa (Punjab), Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany (Sindh) and Justice Amir Hani Muslim (Sindh).