Who Will Watch The Watchmen.

In an unprecedented move, the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan has released the complete audio of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan's proceedings, in which the names of five judges of High Courts were being considered for appointment into the Supreme Court. In the last few years, the Commission has frequently made appointments to the Supreme Court based on 'merit' rather than 'seniority'. In many cases, the Chief Justice of High Courts has been ignored and judges much junior to others have been appointed to the Supreme Court. The Bar Councils and Bar Associations have severely criticised this arbitrary practice of superseding senior judges and have lobbied for the formulation of objective criteria. They have also strongly advocated that till the time such criteria are formulated, judges should only be appointed to the Supreme Court based on their seniority in the respective High Courts to minimise arbitrariness and uphold fairness.

From the audio, it transpired that in the last meeting, the Commission decided to constitute a committee for framing rules so that appointments in future can be made in a structured manner based on 'merit'. Mr Akhtar Hussain, Member Pakistan Bar Council, in the Commission meeting has informed that only one meeting of the rules committee was held. He, along with Mr Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, and Mr Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Law Minister, and Attorney General was sharply critical of holding another Commission meeting without first framing of rules. The majority of members of the Commission also objected to not considering Mr Justice Athar Minallah for the appointment, who is the senior Chief Justice (Islamabad High Court) across Pakistan. The lawyers practising in Islamabad can vouch that Justice Minallah is an extremely competent, hardworking and brave judge. His judgments are well drafted and his recent landmark judgment in the Islamabad Zoo case (Islamabad Wildlife Management Board vs MCI [PLD 2021 IHC 6]) was even quoted by the New York Court of Appeal in a similar matter being adjudicated there, which was also reported in the New York Times. For the last six years, there is not a single judge from Islamabad in the Supreme Court and yet the Commission has consistently overlooked Justice Minallah for appointment in the Supreme Court.

The two-and-a-half-hour session was chaired by the Honourable Chief Justice patiently. However, it seems that whilst Mr Justice Qazi Faez Isa was speaking and had yet to...