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Islamabad: The Special Parliamentary Committee constituted to decide on the appointment of Pakistan's next chief justice on Tuesday picked Justice Yayha Afridi as the new top judge.
The committee met to nominate the next chief justice from among the three most senior Supreme Court judges after the recently adopted 26th Constitutional Amendment brought numerous changes to the judiciary, including the appointment of chief justice by a Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC) against the previous rule of the senior-most judge becoming the chief justice under the seniority principle.
“Justice Afridi’s nomination has been sent to the prime minister with a two-thirds majority,” Geo News quoted Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar as saying.
The development comes after two rounds of in-camera meetings of the parliamentary panel with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) boycotting the proceedings "in line with the party's political committee's decision".
The first in-camera session of the parliamentary panel was held in a room of the Parliament House earlier in the day. However, the SIC members skipped the meeting, prompting the committee members to meet again tonight.
The incumbent chief justice, Qazi Faez Isa, is set to retire on October 25 and under the old rule, senior puisne judge, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, was set to be the next chief.
Under amendments to clause 3 of Article 175A, instead of the president appointing the "most senior judge of the Supreme Court” as the chief justice, the top judge will now be "appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior” judges of the Supreme Court.
After Justice Shah, the next two senior apex court judges were Justices Munib Akhtar and Yahya Afridi.
Under a new clause 3C of Article 175A, the first nomination after the Amendment was in force is to be sent “within three days before the retirement” of the outgoing CJ, which set the deadline for nomination by tonight.
Reacting to the development, PTI leader Hamid Khan "strongly" condemned the nomination and announced the launch of a protest movement.
However, he hoped that Justice Afridi would not accept the nomination as chief justice. “Such a move aimed at creating division within the Supreme Court.” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur also threatened a new protest and the blocking of the entire country against the passage of the 26th Amendment.
Talking to the media here on Tuesday, Gandapur accused the government of appointing judges of their choice to get favourable decisions and vowed to overturn the unconstitutional amendment.
The new process signals a significant departure from the judiciary's long-held autonomy in determining its leadership.
Being tired of judicial overreach, the parliament tried to curtail the judiciary's influence in political and governance matters, which the courts were accused of exercising in recent years.