The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday adjourned hearing of the petition filed against Practice and Procedure Act for an indefinite time period due to non-availability of a judge, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

An eight-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Umar Ata Bandial, was due to hear the a number of petitions challenging the Supreme Court (Practice & Procedure) Act, 2023, which seeks to limit the powers of the CJP.

The bench comprised of CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed.

But due to the sickness of Justice Shahid Waheed, the hearing had to be postponed. 

The same apex court bench had on April 13 suspended the bill before it was enacted as law. However, on April 21, the bill became law even as its implementation had been halted by the court.

The law envisages a three-member committee, comprising the CJP and two senior-most judges, which will via majority form benches as well as decide when to take suo motu action — powers that currently reside with the top judge alone.

In the previous hearing, the top court had decided to take a recess in hearing the case for a week after Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan had apprised it of the government’s intention to harmonize some “overlapping provisions” of the Supreme Court (Practice & Procedure) Act 2023 and the Supreme Court (Review of Judgments and Orders) Act 2023.

The review judgments law expands the jurisdiction of the court by giving a right to appeal under Article 184(3). According to the Supreme Court (Review of Judgments and Orders) Act 2023, the scope of a review will be similar to Article 185, which confers appellate jurisdiction to the top court.

The CJP had welcomed the stance of the government and said that he was glad to know that the government and parliament would be reviewing the two laws to remove the overlapping of some provisions.

Reporter: Amanat Gishkori