Islamabad [Pakistan], November 1, : The bill to increase the number of judges in the Pakistani Supreme Court may be presented in the National Assembly (NA) next week, ARY News reported on Friday, citing sources.
The ruling government is still at loggerheads among themselves on the bill that aims to increase the number of Pakistan's Supreme Court judges, as per ARY News.
Following this lack of agreement, the government decided to postpone the legislation on the matter to next week, ARY News's sources privy to the matter said.
The bill would probably be presented in the House after a consensus is reached. With the bill, the government is mulling to increase the number of SC judges to 23 including the CJP from 16, as per ARY News.
Barrister Danyal Chaudhary of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) presented the bill. For the approval of the bill, the duration of NA session which was supposed to end on Tuesday was extended till Friday. The amendments to the Practice and Procedure Act are also under discussion, ARY News reported.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notices to the Cabinet Division and the Ministry of Law and Justice on Thursday regarding two constitutional petitions challenging the validity of the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
Earlier, the government passed 26th amendment to the constitution of Pakistan to revise the appointment procedure of the CJP and fix the tenure of the post to three years.
The Pakistan Senate passed the 26th constitutional Amendment Bill with a two-thirds majority on October 20, ARY News reported.
The bill aimed at ensuring quick justice had received push back from opposition, mainly from Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf which held various protests alleging that the bill would undermine the judiciary's powers.
The bill has 27 clauses and amenedments to various Articles of the constitutions have been proposed. The amendment suggested by Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has been incorporated. JUI-F earlier protested against the bill but was later convinced by the ruling government.