A meeting chaired by Justice Aminud Din Khan on Monday decided to constitute a three-judge committee to fix cases falling under the purview of Article 191A of the Constitution, issue court rosters, form benches and decide weekly caseload for recently established constitutional bench.
Last week, the inaugural meeting of the reconstituted Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) appointed Justice Khan as head of the seven-judge constitutional bench by a majority vote of seven to five. As per the 26th constitutional amendment, the seven-judge constitutional bench includes representatives from all four provinces: Justices Khan and Ayesha Malik from Punjab; Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Naeem Akhtar Afghan from Balochistan; Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Hassan Azhar Rizvi from Sindh; and Justice Musarrat Hilali from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
During Monday’s meeting, held in Justice Khan’s chambers, he received a briefing on the pendency of cases under Article 184(1), 184(3) and 186, including various human rights cases. “The current working/practice of processing of the Constitution petitions and proposed strategy for future adoption were also placed before [Justice Khan],” read minutes of the meeting uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website.
It said Justice Khan had decided to color code cases falling under the purview of Article 191A of the Constitution, while tasking Senior Research Officer Mazhar Ali Khan with scrutinizing cases arising out of Article 199 of the Constitution. For fixation of cases and benches, Justice Khan said it would be done in accordance with Article 191A(4), which requires the head of the constitutional bench to sit with two senior most members of the constitutional bench. The meeting decided that the constitutional bench would comprise “not less than five Judges for the purposes noted in clause (3) of the instant Article.”
According to the minutes, one member of the committee is currently out of the country, so the inaugural meeting of the three-judge committee would meet upon their return.