ISLAMABAD: A full court comprising alk the available 15 judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan resumed hearings multiple appeals against the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Act 2023 in Monday.
This was second hearing of the petitions in which the petitioners have challenged the Act as an attempt to encroach upon the jurisdiction of the apex court.
At the previous hearing, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had directed the lawyers of the petitioners to submit their replies in writing to queries raised by him and other members of the full court.
Headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the full court comprises Justices Sardar Tariq Masood, Ijazul Ahsan, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Aminuddin Khan, Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha A. Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed and Musarrat Hilali.
When the full court started hearing today, Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid Zuberi appeared on behalf of some of the petitioners.
He referred to different articles of the Constitution snd argued that the Act was in conflict with the sections of the law that guaranteed the independence of the higher judiciary.
On the arguments of the petitioners, the judges have repeatedly asked how parliament’s constitutional right to legislate can be considered as an encroachment on the power of the judiciary.
At one point today, the chief justice remarked that parliament had enacted the law with good intentions.
The lawyers if the petitioners continued their arguments against the Act besides replying to different points raised by the judges when the court retired for a break.
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