ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission has released a preliminary draft of new rules for the appointment of judges, emphasizing merit-based criteria such as professional qualifications, legal expertise, competence, and reputation.
The proposed rules have been published on the Supreme Court’s website to invite public feedback.
According to the draft, the selection criteria for judges will include professional qualifications, legal proficiency, competence, and reputation. An essential consideration will be the candidate’s independence from external pressures.
The draft also highlights the importance of adequate representation of lawyers and sessions judges in the nomination process and aims to ensure balanced representation from all high courts in Supreme Court appointments.
For Supreme Court appointments, the draft recommends selecting judges from among the five most senior judges of the high courts. Similarly, the chief justice of a high court should be chosen from the three most senior judges of that court.
A structured voting process within the Judicial Commission is proposed, to be initiated only after a comprehensive review of all nominations.
The 2010 Judicial Commission rules have been replaced with these new reforms, which incorporate recommendations from the Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel Committee.
Justice Jamal Mandokhel, chairman of the committee that drafted the rules, expressed gratitude to the committee members for their valuable contributions.
A Supreme Court spokesperson announced that the proposed rules are open for public comments and feedback until December 20. The Judicial Commission will review the feedback and consider final approval of the rules on December 21.
