Islamabad: A renewed call to make public the procedures of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), under the leadership of the President of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, has been rejected once again, reopening a debate previously established by the commission during a meeting last year.
At the meeting of November 25, 2024, Puisne’s senior judge, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, proposed that the minutes of JCP meetings be made public, but most members rejected the idea, a well -located source revealed.
On June 25, Judge Shah again urged the JCP to share minutes of his meetings, citing passes of passing transparency taken during the mandate of the former CJP judge Qazi Faez Isa, when the minutes of a three judges committee were formed under the Law of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) of Law 2023 were regularly charged on the official website of the Supreme Court.
The JCP meeting of November 25 had been convened to constitute a constitutional bank of nine judges for the Superior Court of Sindh, which was approved by a majority vote of 11 to 4. However, representatives of PTI-Leder of the opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and opposition leader in the Senate Shibli Faraz-did not attend the meeting.
The JCP waited almost two hours for the two members to arrive, but their mobile phones remained off. The commission then proceeded with its meeting. Later, the president of the PTI, the lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, and Senator Barríster Syed Ali Zafar were nominated to replace Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz in the JCP.
During the session, chaired by CJP Yahya Afridi, Judge Shah invoked article 19 of the Constitution to argue that the commission’s procedures should be made public due to the important public interest involved in their decisions. He stressed that transparency in judicial appointments was essential to maintain democratic norms and public trust.
The Minister of Law Tarar replied that the decision must be based on the collective wisdom of the members of the Commission.
Agp Awan said that nature in the JCP meetings were prescribed by the 2010 commission rules and that any deviation would require a formal amendment to those rules.
The CJP clarified the current legal framework did not allow the dissemination of procedures, as the existing rules explicitly prohibit it. However, he put the matter to vote.
The proposal was rejected, with 11 members voting against and only three, including Judge Mansoor Ali Shah and Judge Munib Akhtar, voting in favor. SHC President of Justice Shafi Siddiqui abstained.
In a new letter, Judge Shah reiterated his concern, stating that the opacity surrounding the commission’s work was not healthy or democratic and was inconsistent with the role of the Supreme Court as a guardian of constitutional values. He stressed that judicial appointments are acts of public importance with the long -range consequences.
Posted in Dawn, July 5, 2025
