By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) announced on Tuesday that three of the country’s most powerful judicial oversight bodies have been reconstituted to comply with the 27th Constitutional Amendment, the sweeping and bitterly contested overhaul that created a new apex constitutional court and fundamentally altered the balance of judicial authority.
A terse Supreme Court press release described the changes as necessary adjustments “pursuant to the 27th Constitutional Amendment” so that the Supreme Judicial Council, the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Committee, and the Judicial Commission of Pakistan “have been reconstituted in accordance with the revised constitutional framework.” The most immediate changes involve two senior judges who have been elevated into new roles across the reconstituted panels.
Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, now the second-most senior judge of the Supreme Court after the resignation last week of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, has been named to both the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and the Supreme Court’s Practice and Procedure Committee.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and the new Chief Justice of the newly created Federal Constitutional Court, Aminuddin Khan, jointly nominated Justice Mandokhail to the SJC. The same two chief justices also placed him on the three-member Practice and Procedure Committee, which decides bench formation and case fixation in the Supreme Court. Justice Aamer Farooq, the second-most senior judge of the Federal Constitutional Court, has been jointly nominated by the two chief justices to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), the body that recommends appointments to the superior judiciary.
Under the new arrangements the Supreme Judicial Council — the highest forum for judicial accountability and misconduct proceedings — will be chaired by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, whose earlier appointment as chief justice gives him precedence over Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan. Its members are Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail of the Supreme Court, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi of the Federal Constitutional Court, Chief Justice Aalia Neelum of the Lahore High Court, and Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar of the Islamabad High Court.
The Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Committee now consists of Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Munib Akhtar, and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail. The Judicial Commission of Pakistan will be chaired by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and will include Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Aamer Farooq from the superior courts, Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, Pakistan Bar Council representative Ahsan Bhoon, two members each from the National Assembly and the Senate, and one woman or non-Muslim member nominated by the Speaker of the National Assembly.
“The reconstituted bodies will continue to play a central role in matters of accountability, judicial appointments, and procedural governance under the amended constitutional scheme,” the court statement said. The reconfigurations are the latest administrative fallout from the 27th Amendment, which Parliament pushed through earlier this month amid opposition walkouts and protests. The amendment’s centerpiece is the creation of the Federal Constitutional Court, which strips the Supreme Court of its long-held status as the final arbiter of constitutional questions and relegates it to an essentially an appellate court in non-constitutional matters.
Within hours of President Asif Ali Zardari signing the amendment into law on November 13, Justice Athar Minallah and the then-senior puisne judge Syed Mansoor Ali Shah resigned from the Supreme Court, citing deep reservations about the changes. The International Commission of Jurists, in a strongly worded statement issued the same day, warned that the amendment seriously undermines judicial independence. “Before the amendment, the Supreme Court of Pakistan exercised the functions that have now been given to the FCC,” the commission said. “Following the amendment, the Supreme Court will now effectively be an appellate court only in matters that do not involve the interpretation of the Constitution of Pakistan.”
The commission also criticized the appointment mechanism for the new court’s first bench, noting that initial judges will be named by the president on the prime minister’s advice, while the chief justice of the FCC will be selected by a special parliamentary committee. “The amendment does not provide any criteria on which the appointments will be made and does not require reasons to [be] given for the appointments, apart from general qualifications necessary to be considered a judge of the FCC,” the ICJ said. It added that the dual role of the FCC chief justice and its senior-most judge as members of both the Judicial Commission of Pakistan and the Supreme Judicial Council “are also of concern” because those bodies oversee appointments and disciplinary proceedings. The government maintains the reforms are essential to clear massive case backlogs and strengthen constitutional governance. Critics, including serving and retired judges, bar associations, and international observers, warn they risk politicising the judiciary and eroding its independence.
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