JCP session postponed till clarity on criteria for appointments.

ISLAMABAD -- The marathon session of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) postponed further deliberations with an understanding to reconvene after the commission's rules committee comes out with a clear appointment criteria. The commission met on Tuesday to consider elevation of seven judges to the Sindh High Court.

The five-hour session, held in a conducive environment, was presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial through a video link from his residence. Senior puisine judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa participated from Spain.

Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf could not attend as he was reportedly unwell while Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was in attendance in his capacity as the provincial law minister.

The next JCP meeting is expected to be held in the first or second week of August since some commission members had to proceed for Haj and the rules committee would have met by then.

The candidates selected to be elevated as additional judges of the SHC were three district and sessions judges Amjad Ali Bohio, Mohammad Saeed Qureshi and Mohammad Abdur Rehman as well as advocates Khurram Rashid, Rashid Mustafa, Khadim Hussain Soomro and Arbar Ali Hakro.

The JCP met a day after Justice Isa's three-page letter in which the senior puisine judge had taken exception to the calling of the meeting with a suggestion that it should be postponed until the scheduled vacations of the court were over.

Justice Isa had also emphasised that the Constitution placed a heavy responsibility on all members of the JCP to abide by their constitutional duty. But, they are not allowed to undertake their constitutional duties in a meaningful way, the judge had regretted, adding that people of this great nation deserved much better.

'Let us be allowed to do our constitutional duty properly and with due deliberation,' Justice Isa had observed.

On June 23, a JCP member from Sindh, Syed Haider Imam Rizvi, had written a letter to the CJP, highlighting the need for expediting rule-making and settling transparent, consistent, well-defined appointment criteria since the vague and overly-broad qualities such as competence, integrity, capacity and temperament were not sufficient.

Syed Rizvi had also reiterated that all JCP members should be allowed to propose nominees for elevation as judges of the high courts.

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