Two more judges of the Supreme Court have written to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial emphasising the need to quickly fill vacant top court posts.
The development follows in the wake of Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s September 28 letter on the same subject. Justices Sardar Tariq Masood and Mansoor Ali Shah told the CJP that the posts had been vacant since nine months. According to Al-Jihad case, express appointment of judges was imperative, the justices said in their letter.
The justices said appointing the five high court chief justices to the top court must be looked into. Or, they said, two senior-most high court judges must be appointed to the top court.
The justices said in their letter that the need for a meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council had been stressed time and again in vain.
Justice Isa had urged CJP Bandial to expressly convene a Judicial Commission meeting to nominate judges to the top court earlier in September.
In a letter dated September 28, a copy of which is available with The Friday Times — Naya Daur, Isa urged Bandial to “immediately” convene a commission meeting to enable the outstanding five vacancies to be filled. Isa said he had called on Bandial repeatedly to do is constitutional duty and let commission members do theirs.
The Supreme Court justice said over 50,000 cases had accumulated at the top court. There are five vacancies at the Supreme Court. This, he said, translated into 726 lost days. Verdicts on pending cases, Isa said, would remain elusive if the vacancies were not filled.
