A five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear multiple petitions against the constitution of a judicial commission to probe audio leaks pertaining to the judiciary today (Friday).
A day earlier, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial constituted a five-member larger bench to hear four different pleas filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, Muqtedir Akhtar Shabbir, Advocate Riaz Hanif and Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid Shah Zuberi, according to the cause list issued by the court.
The bench — headed by CJP Bandial and comprising Justice Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed — will conduct hearing of the petitions today at 11am.
Under Section 3 of the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act 2017, the government, on May 20, appointed a high-powered judicial commission — headed by Supreme Court Senior Puisne Judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa along with Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Islamabad High Court (IHC) CJ Aamer Farooq as members — to investigate the audio leaks involving former and sitting members of the judiciary. The commission has been tasked to complete the inquiry within 30 days.
Among the multiple audio leaks, the commission is also probing into the veracity of the alleged calls between former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and a sitting top court judge as well as another call between CM Elahi and a Supreme Court lawyer over the constitution of an apex court bench.
Subsequently, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan questioned the government for the “deliberate omission” of the terms of reference (TORs) and challenged the formation of the three-member judicial commission on audio leaks.
Babar Awan, the PTI chief’s lawyer and party leader, had filed the plea on his behalf requesting the court to declare the notification for constituting the commission null and void.
Similarly, Zubairi had also challenged the audio leaks commission to summon directing him to appear before the panel in connection with the inquiry.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar earlier said that the government did not consult CJP Bandial before forming the commission.
The judicial panel was constituted in the wake of widely circulated controversial audio leaks which raised “serious apprehensions about the independence, impartiality and uprightness of the Chief Justices/Judges of the Superior Courts in the administration of justice”.
Meanwhile, the commission has also summoned four people connected with the alleged audios including Zubairi, Advocate Khawaja Tariq Rahim, journalist Abdul Qayyum Siddiqui and son of former CJP Saqib Nisar, Najam Saqib, today.
Earlier this week, the Justice Isa-led commission announced that the proceedings of its inquiry will be made public as it held its first hearing earlier this week on Monday in courtroom number 7 of the Supreme Court.
