NA passes bills seeking increase in number of SC judges up to 34 & 5-year services chiefs’ tenure amid opposition protest
ISLAMABAD, Nov 04 (SABAH): The National Assembly on Monday passed six bills, including one seeking an increase in the number of Supreme Court of Pakistan judges and another related to the extension of the tenures of armed services chiefs, shortly after they were presented as the opposition strongly protested.
The first bill, related to the increase in the number of top court judges, was presented by Minister for Law and Justice senator Chaudry Azam Nazeer Tarar, who said that the government had proposed increasing the number of judges to 34.
“This amendment will increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court up to 34, so that the backlog of cases can be cleared, and that after the 26th Constitutional Amendment, we can have judges to form the constitutional benches,” Azam Nazeer Tarar said.
“Our bar lobbies and the SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) have been recommending this for a while now so that the four-bar court registries in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, and Lahore can relieve their thousands of pending cases. This number has been left open for the judicial commission,” the minister went on to say.
Soon after the law minister presented the bill in the National Assembly and finished his speech, voting on the bill was carried out despite the opposition fiercely protesting.
The NA also passed amendments to the Pakistan (Army/Air Force/Navy) Act Amendment Bill 2024 to increase the tenures of service chiefs, presented by Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
According to the statement of objects and reasons for the amendments, “The purpose of these amendments is to make consistent the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 … The Pakistan Navy Ordinance, 1961 … and The Pakistan Air Force Act, 1953 … with the maximum tenure of the Chief of the Army Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff and to make consequential amendments for uniformity in the aforementioned laws.”