Landmark ruling.

Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa will long be remembered for abdicating his powers on suo motu. Moreover, the passionate manner in which the full court deliberated over an act of parliament that pertained to curtailing the judicial purview and granting the right to appeal over an appellate court decision is unprecedented. The apex court with a majority decision sustained the SC (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023, a law that envisions the formation of a committee of three senior judges to form benches on cases involving constitutional matters of public importance, and took no qualms in upholding the supremacy of the parliament to legislate even over the prerogative of the lords and superior judiciary.

The ruling upheld a section of the law that envisages the right to appeal in future cases, whereas at the same time it rejected the right to appeal in retrospective cases. The proceedings telecast live for the first time in history drew praise and condemnations, alike, as people were not too happy to see a procedural debate bombarded on the nation by sweeping under the carpet real issues concerning...