The Senate Standing Committee on Justice has adopted a bill to raise the number of Supreme Court judges from 17 to 25.
Despite opposition from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the law was approved.
The bill was introduced by Senator Abdul Qadir at a committee hearing that was presided over by Senator Farooq H. Naek.
He maintained that an excessive backlog of cases, which frequently take decades to resolve, is the result of rising crime and population rates.
Despite a significant increase in caseloads, Qadir emphasized that the number of Supreme Court judges is still the same as it was in the 1990s.
Although the Supreme Court has been considering more than 30 cases per day lately, Senator Kamran Murtaza pointed out that seats in the high courts are still unfilled and that the court’s operations remained sluggish until October 25.
Senator Hamid Khan, however, argued against the bill, contrasting the 34-judge Indian Supreme Court with Pakistan’s. Khan argued against adding more judges and suggested that the judiciary itself should be consulted on the issue, attributing case delays to internal disputes within the court.
Financial concerns were voiced by Senator Anusha Rahman, who questioned why the government pays Supreme Court judges’ power costs and why retiring judges are still receiving pensions. Khan went on to argue that the judiciary was undermined by the 26th Amendment, arguing that adding more judges might be interpreted as an effort by the government to exert control over the judiciary.
