Justice Mansoor Ali Shah unlikely to be next CJP: Report

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah is unlikely to become the next Chief Justice of Pakistan after Justice Qazi Faez Isa if the coalition government manages to pass the 26th constitutional amendment, The News has reported.

The News report stated that according to government sources, the ruling coalition and its allies will choose Justice Yahya Afridi as the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) after Justice Qazi Faez Isa retires on October 25.

The three most senior judges after Isa who are next in line for the slot of CJP will be Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Yahya Afridi.

In recent months, Supreme Court judges have been involved in controversy upon contriversy, and there has been a clear lack of consensus amongst the higher judiciary on many things.

Justice Afridi, however, has remained neutral, The News reported.

How will the proposed constitutional amendment affect the next CJP?

The constitutional draft the government is trying to pass suggests: “The Chief Justice of Pakistan shall be appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst three most senior Judges of the Supreme Court. The Committee, constituted for the aforesaid purpose, shall send the name of the nominee to the Prime Minister, who shall forward the nominee to the President for appointment. Provided that where the nominee under this clause declines, the next most senior judge shall be considered by the Committee and so on till the appointment of the chief justice of Pakistan.”

Suppose the government succeeds in passing the amendments with a full majority in Parliament. In that case, the ‘special parliamentary committee’ will decide the next Chief Justice of Pakistan, making it significantly different from the past procedures.

“The Special Parliamentary Committee, in this article referred to as the Committee, shall consist of the following twelve members, namely:- (i) eight members from the National Assembly; and (ii) four members from the Senate. Provided that when the National Assembly stands dissolved, the total membership of the Committee shall consist of the members from the Senate only…” proposed the 26th constitutional amendment draft.

Representation of each political party would be according to the strength it holds in the Parliament. According to this draft, the parliamentary committee would send the nomination to the Prime Minister fourteen days before the retirement of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

In September, the coalition government remained unsuccessful in passing the Constitutional Amendment Bill amidst protests by the opposition party and senior lawyers. The Government failed to get the magic number to pass the bill, with JUI-F President Fazal ur Rehman holding the key. Fazl took centre stage as the opposition and coalition government raced to meet with him to get his support.