ISLAMABAD - The Judicial Commission is going to hold it’s crucial meeting here under with Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the chair, wherein names of two ad hoc and one acting judges will be proposed to serve the apex court in the coming days.
The need to appoint ad hoc judges and an acting judge in the apex court was necessitated by the imminent detailed judgment of the apex court in contempt of court case against Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, as for taking up the appeal against the seven-member bench, the court would be requiring at least eight or nine members bench.
Whereas in the given situation six judges were available for the purpose as out of the remaining judges of the apex court Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani has refused to sit in the bench taking up the case against Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani being his relative while being the acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Sharirullah Jan could also not sit in the bench while Justice Saqib Nisar has also requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan not to include him in the bench to hear appeal against the contempt of court verdict against Prime Minister.
So in the given circumstances the Judicial Commission would likely propose the names of two ad hoc and one acting judges for Supreme Court of Pakistan so that in case of appeal against the decision, which the PPP leadership had given clear indications several times, the court would be in a position to constitute nine members bench to take up the appeal of the Prime Minister against his conviction.
Legal and constitutional experts said that the recommendations of the Judicial Commission would land in the eight-member Parliamentary Committee on Judges Appointment, which under the law could hold the process for maximum up to 14 days and even if the committee would not come up with affirmative nod on the proposed names the same would be considered as approved and would be sent to the President for final notification.
For turning down the names for the appointment of judges the Parliamentary Committee would be requiring three-fourth members and that too with solid reasoning, which would hardly possible in the given situation where three out of eight members belonged to Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), while the fourth member in the committee from opposition side from Upper House of the Parliament Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was also elected courtesy PML-N and morally he would not go against the decision of the united opposition.