By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court is set to convene a full court meeting today to deliberate on the proposed Supreme Court Rules 2025, a controversial revision to the court’s procedural framework that has sparked debate among judges and the legal community over transparency and the approval process.
The full court, comprising all Supreme Court judges, will meet at 1:00 p.m. in the committee room of the Supreme Court building, marking the start of the new judicial year. The session, chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, will focus on finalising the draft rules, which aim to modernise judicial proceedings but have drawn scrutiny for how they were initially approved.
The draft, prepared by a four-member committee led by Justice Shahid Waheed and including Justices Irfan Saadat Khan, Naeem Akhter Afghan, and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, was first circulated on March 13 after an extensive review of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980.
The committee sought to enhance transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness in judicial proceedings, inviting input from judges, the Supreme Court office, bar councils, and associations to align the rules with modern legal requirements. However, the process hit a snag when senior puisne judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, in a sharply worded letter to CJP Afridi, questioned why the historic revision was “approved by circulation” rather than through a full court discussion.
Officials said several senior judges shared Justice Shah’s concerns, arguing that such a significant overhaul warranted open deliberation. The legal fraternity, including bar councils and associations, also raised reservations about certain provisions after the draft was uploaded to the Supreme Court’s website. In response, CJP Afridi reconstituted the four-judge committee under Rule 1(4) of the proposed rules to address implementation challenges and called today’s full court meeting to finalise the framework.
The agenda will center on written suggestions from the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and prior statements from the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), with no additional feedback received by the committee beyond the SCBA’s input, according to a report by Dawn newspaper. The SCBA’s proposals, submitted on September 3, advocate for greater accountability in judicial oversight. The association called for open inquiries by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) into complaints against superior court judges, arguing that public proceedings, conducted with safeguards for dignity and decorum, would uphold constitutional guarantees of equality before the law (Article 25) and the right to a fair trial (Article 10A).
The SCBA further recommended that the SJC resolve references within a fixed six-month period once a complaint is admitted. Another key SCBA proposal focuses on court fees, urging the rollback of recent increases to ensure affordable access to justice. The association pointed to Norway and Germany, where nominal fees are charged, as models for rationalizing costs to make the judicial system more accessible.
The proposed rules have broader implications for Pakistan’s judiciary, which has faced criticism in recent years over case backlogs and procedural inefficiencies. The committee’s draft seeks to streamline processes, but the lack of broader input from stakeholders has fueled concerns about the inclusivity of the reform process.
Today’s meeting, held on the administrative side rather than in the traditional Courtroom No. 1, underscores the procedural focus of the discussions. Adding to the significance of the day, the Supreme Court is also expected to inaugurate a newly built facility center within its premises, marking a step toward modernizing the court’s infrastructure as the judicial year begins.
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