Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, the senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court, has reiterated his refusal to sit on any special or larger benches formed by the committee constituted under the amended Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023, once again calling for a full court bench to determine its constitutional validity.
In a letter addressed to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa in his capacity as chair of the committee, Justice Shah maintained that he would not sit on any bench formed under the committee formed due to the presidential ordinance promulgated to amend the act. However, he added, if the earlier committee comprising the two senior-most judges as well as the CJP were restored, he would be amenable to sitting on any benches formed under it.
Until then, he wrote, “[I] will only attend sittings of the regular benches to hear the cases of ordinary litigants in the larger public interest.”
The senior puisne judge concluded his letter with a quote from Sir Thomas More referring to the private conscience of statesmen in which he had warned that forsaking the same led a country to chaos. “We often forget, when in power, that people of this country are watching our actions, and that history never forget,” he added.
Justice Yahya Afridi superseded Justice Shah for the position of the next CJP after a special parliamentary committee formed under the 26th constitutional amendment recommended the former for the role. The contentious amendment has attracted criticism from legal bodies and the PTI for its alleged interference in judicial independence, with the latter vowing to launch a protest movement for its revocation.