CJP Afridi goes on leave for 'personal reasons'
Pakistan
According to sources, the CJP would not be a part of any bench during this week
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi went on leave citing personal reasons on Tuesday.
According to sources, the CJP would not be a part of any bench during this week.
However, CJP Afridi is said to remain in Islamabad during his off days from duty.
SC benches' powers: three judges write letter to Chief Justice Afridi over not fixing case
Three Supreme Court of Pakistan judges Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi have written a letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Aminuddin Khan over a matter of not fixing a case pertaining to the powers of Supreme Court benches.
The judges in their letter mentioned that on January 13 some cases were pending in the bench of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan.
According to the letter, during a case, State -vs-Dewan Motors, a question was raised if a regular bench could hear the case. The hearing was adjourned to January 16, seeking arguments from the lawyers of the case.
On January 16, the bench was reconstituted and Justice Aqeel Abbasi was included in the bench, but he could not hear this case because he, as a judge of Sindh High Court, had written the decision of this particular case, the letter mentioned.
The judges in the letter said, “We ordered the SC office to present the cases on January 20 to the already formed bench. But today, we have been told that these cases could not be fixed.”
According to the letter, Practice and Procedures committee had raised the issue on January 17, and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had informed the committee that he had passed the order and his point of view on the matter was present in the record.
“Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said his order should be accepted as it is, and he did not need to appear before the committee. We are astonished and worried that despite the judicial order cases have not been presented in the bench today,” the letter mentioned.
The judges in the letter said that the Practice and Procedures committee did not need to take up the issue.
“It was directions for the office to fix the cases to the already existing bench. If the committee had to raise the issue, it should have formed a bench like previous one and fixed the cases for today’s hearing,” the letter said.
The letter said, “Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said the committee could have formed a new bench with the appointment of a new judge in the committee in place of Justice Aqeel Abbasi, but it should not have ignored the judicial order.
“The committee was required to fix these cases before a bench on January 20, but our list of the whole week was changed without any assistance or support.”
The letter mentions that Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that not complying with the judicial was tantamount to belittling the honour of the court, deviation from the law and such act sparked serious reservations regarding the freedom of benches of the court.
