After failing to pass the "judicial package" in the first attempt, the government unveiled it and expressed its intention of pushing through a Constitutional amendment to pass it into law.
Under the proposed amendment, the government aims to supersede the Supreme Court by establishing a Federal Constitution Court and also aims to curtail the powers of High courts where issues of national security are concerned.
The first Chief Justice of the FCC will be appointed by the President, in consultation with the Prine Minister, whereupon subsequent judges will be appointed by the Prime Minister in consultation with the Chief Justice.
The number of justices in the FCC will be determined by an Act of Parliament, and business will be normalized whereby subsequent Chief Justices of the FCC will be appointed by an eight-member committee of the parliament, appointed by the Speaker of the National Assembly.
To qualify as a judge of the FCC, a nominee would have to have 5 years of experience as a High Court judge or 15 years of practice as a lawyer, and, he must not have served or be a serving member of the Supreme Court.
The age of retirement of an FCC judge is also proposed at 68 years, in comparison to 65 years for the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Thus, the Supreme Court is to be made subordinate to the FCC; a Federal Judicial Commission is to be formed with the CJ of the FCC acting as its head, and comprising other hand-picked members, including the Federal law Minister, Attorney General, and two parliamentarians of the treasury benches, allowing the government to comfortably control the judiciary.
The stipulation allowing High Court judges to be appointed to the FCC also enables the government to effectively police them and to "monitor their performance against inefficiency".
Furthermore, the Supreme Court will not be the competent authority to hear cases of Constitutional importance, and the procedure of selecting judges and the CJ of the FCC also makes it subordinate to the executive.
With the PTI reportedly unhappy with the passage of this Constitutional amendment, all eyes will now be on the Election Commission of Pakistan and the judgment passed by the Supreme Court to allocate reserved seats to the party.
However, the said judgment did call upon several PTI-backed independents to re-submit their party loyalties- these MPs will now be the subject of the developing supermajority forming maneuvers in Parliament.
The tussle between the SC and the ECP is expected to heat up, leading to a new vote on the Constitutional Amendment in Parliament.
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