SC adjourns hearing of 'act clipping CJP’s powers' for three weeks

Islamabad: Supreme Counrt (SC) Monday adjourned the hearing of petitions challenging ‘Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023’ which aims to curtail the powers of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) for talking suo motu action for three weeks.

According to the roster issued, the eight-member larger bench will comprise CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Sayyad Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Shahid Waheed are hearing the case.

The federal government had filed a formal application to set the case before the full court in which it expressed full confidence in all the judges of the Supreme Court.

In the previous hearing, the court had directed all the parties to submit written responses. It also asked the Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan for the records of the proceedings of the Parliament and the Standing Committees.

When the hearing started today, Attorney General Mansoor Usman requested to form a full court.

Lawyer Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Salahuddin Ahmed said that we have also requested full court in the petition. Responding to which Justice Ejazul Hassan said that your appeal has not been allotted a number yet.

Chief Justice inquired Attorney General if he has submitted the parliamentary record of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure Bill) 2023. To which Mansoor responded negatively stating that the record will be available by tomorrow as Speaker’s office has been contacted both formally and informally.