A special parliamentary committee, formed to decide on the appointment of Pakistan's next chief justice, will meet on Tuesday to nominate the new top judge from among the three most senior Supreme Court judges.

The recently adopted 26th Constitutional Amendment brought numerous changes pertaining to the judiciary, among which is appointing the chief justice by a Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC) out of three top judges against the previous rule of the senior-most judge becoming the chief justice under the seniority principle.

The incumbent chief justice, Qazi Faez Isa, is set to retire on October 25 and under the old rule, senior puisne judge, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, was set to be the next chief.

Under amendments to clause 3 of Article 175A, instead of the president appointing the "most senior judge of the Supreme Court” as the chief justice, the top judge will now be "appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior” judges of the Supreme Court.

After Justice Shah, the next two senior apex court judges are Justices Munib Akhtar and Yahya Afridi.

Under a new clause 3C of Article 175A, the first nomination after the Amendment was in force is to be sent “within three days prior to the retirement” of the outgoing CJ, which sets the deadline for nomination by tonight.

The SPC comprises eight members of the national assembly and four senators nominated by their respective parliamentary leaders. Political parties have representation in the committee based on their strength in the parliament. The attorney general is also part of the committee.

But the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf decided to stay away from the meeting of the SPC. "Of course, we will not be part of any parliamentary committee. We believe not only the amendments but in the manner they were passed itself was illegal,” PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari said in a statement on X.

“Why would we legitimise them and be part of this mafia that is destroying the independence of our judiciary?” he asked rhetorically. “We are not going to part take in parliamentary committee, loud and clear.” The committee's task is to vet the top three senior judges. Once the name is finalised, it will be sent to the prime minister, who will then forward it to the president for the appointment.

The new process signals a significant departure from the judiciary's long-held autonomy in determining its leadership. Apparently being tired of judicial overreach, the parliament tried to curtail the judiciary's influence in political and governance matters, which the courts were accused of exercising in recent years.

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