An eight-member larger bench of the Supreme Court (SC) grilled Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan over the government’s plea to form a full court to hear a set of petitions against a law aimed at limiting the powers of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP).
The bench comprised CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed.
At the last hearing on May 2, CJP Bandial had sought the record of National Assembly (NA) proceedings from when the bill, which has since become an act of Parliament, was deliberated upon by the House.
The bench had directed the attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) to furnish copies of the proceedings of the standing committee and the House “to understand the concerns and views of the lawmakers while passing the bill”.
The CJP had also put the Pakistan Bar Council’s (PBC) request for a full court aside, observing that it would be considered again during the next hearing.
Subsequently, the government requested the SC to form a full court to consider important questions regarding the judiciary’s independence and parliament’s powers to regulate the court’s procedure. Separately, the government also asked the court to dismiss the challenges to the law.
