Islamabad, 31 March 2023

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial broke down today during hearing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) led by former ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan’s petition against Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)  on delay in the Punjab and  Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provinces citing security threats, the economic situation of the country and lack of man power to conduct the polls.

In presence of the audience and members of the media in court, he charged that since last two years he and some of the judges are targets of propaganda and they were unable to response. He admitted that he became emotional during the hearing.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Feb­ruary 22 took the suo motu no­tice over the delay in the election of two provincial assemblies, and constituted a nine-member bench to hear the case.

Currently, CJ Bandial is heading a three member bench reduced from nine member initially constituted by the Chief Justice, included himself were Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar  and Jus­tice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.

Four members namely Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Yahya Afridi dissociated from the case from beginning. Later, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Aminuddin Khan recused themselves from hearing the case.

It is surprising that Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan is seen in the present three member bench hearing the same case from which he dissociated himself from beginning.

Pakistani parliament both the National Assembly (Lower House) and the senate overwhelmed passed the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure), Bill 2023 aimed at curbing the top judge’s suo motu powers in an individual capacity amid protest by the opposition.

In Senate, sixty votes were cast in favour of the bill and 19 against it. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar submitted a motion in the house which met under the Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.

A three member bench headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa, second senior most judge of the superior courts On March 29 held that all cases that various Supreme Court benches were hearing under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution be postponed until amendments are made in the Supreme Court Rules 1980 regarding the discretionary powers of the CJP.

Among the bench members were Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Shahid Waheed issued the verdict with a vote of 2 to 1 with the dissenting note by Justice Shahid Waheed. However, interestingly Registrar of the SC through a administrative circular this morning disregarded the judicial order issued by Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Aminuddin Khan, stating that it violated the rules laid down by a five-judge larger bench.