ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Saturday released minutes of the July 18 meeting of the three-judge Practice and Procedure Committee, during which Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa called for urgently scheduling the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) review petition against the reserved seats verdict for a hearing.
However, Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Munib Akhtar opposed it, citing that many judges from the original 13-member bench were on vacation and awaiting a detailed order.
“It would be unjust and unfair if the review petitions against the Supreme Court’s reserved seats case ruling were not fixed urgently,” CJP Isa was quoted as highlighting in the minutes of the meeting. “The order under review necessitated reopening of the court even if it required cancellation of vacations.”
The committee, mandated under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, included Justice Munib Akhtar, who is on vacation and participated via video link from Karachi.
According to the minutes, the registrar highlighted two urgent applications filed alongside the review petitions, arguing that a 15-day timeline imposed by the order under review could render the petitions infructuous if implemented.
Review petitions have been filed by the ruling party PML-N and its members against the July 13 ruling, which allocated additional parliamentary seats to Imran Khan’s PTI.
Earlier in the week, a full-court bench overturned decisions of the Peshawar High Court and Election Commission, reinstating reserved seats for the PTI after designating it a political party.
During the committee meeting, Justices Mansoor and Akhtar argued that the review petitions should be heard by the full 13-member bench after summer vacations, when all judges who heard the original appeals would be available.
They pointed out that review petitions are not fixed until a detailed judgment is released by the bench.
Chief Justice Isa reiterated the constitutional right to review and urged prioritizing this right over judges’ vacation schedules.
In response, Justice Akhtar said that the summer vacations were provided under the rules. Moreover, an SC rule provided that the “judicial year of the court shall commence on the second Monday in September each year and continue until the commencement of the vacation in the year next following.”
Chief Justice Isa extended the start of summer vacations to July 15 but acknowledged that rules do not permit cancellation once announced, unless amended by the full court.
Despite Chief Justice Isa’s dissent, the committee majority decided to schedule the review petitions after summer vacations, ensuring all relevant judges could convene.
Chief Justice Isa appended a separate note, stating that constitutional rights to review and urgent hearings should not be undermined.
“With great respect, two untenable reasons have been given by my distinguished colleagues for not listing the review petitions for hearing,” he said and added that no one’s rights can be adversely affected on account of an act of the court.
“If such a scenario is accepted then it would be equally valid that detailed reasons are purposely delayed and or never provided and thus render the Constitution, which provides for a review petition, and the law, which mandates urgent hearing, utterly meaningless,” it said.
