Islamabad,(Samajweekly) The ruling Pakistan alliance on Thursday rejected the formation of an eight-member “controversial” bench of the Supreme Court that will take up a set of petitions challenging the bill clipping the Chief Justice’s powers.
In a statement issued earlier in the day ahead of the hearing, the coalition partners vowed to resist attempts to take away Parliament’s authority and to interfere in its constitutional domain, The News reported.
The hard-hitting response to the constitution of the bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial came just hours before the hearing was set to start.
The court bench also includes Justices Ijaz ul Ahsan, Munib Akhtar, Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Shahid Waheed.
None of the judges who raised questions on the powers of the CJP were included in the bench, The News reported.
The bench will take up three petitions challenging the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 amidst a boycott by the country’s top lawyers body of court proceedings in protest “against fixation of pleas in haste”.
A late-night announcement, made by PBC Vice Chairman Haroonur Rashid and Executive Committee Vice Chairman Hassan Raza Pasha, said that the CJP constituted the bench in haste for hearing the petitions, The News reported.
They said that the lawyers’ community would boycott the court proceedings across the country on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the bill == clipping CJP powers — was passed by a joint sitting of parliament after President Arif Alvi returned it.
