ISLAMABAD: A 6-judges larger bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday disposed off a ruling issued by the bench headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa on powers of the chief justice regarding suo motu notices and formation of benches.
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Chief Justice had formed a six-member bench, headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan and comprising Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Mazahar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi, to examine the 2-1 verdict given on March 29 by a three-juges bench comprising Justice Qazi Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Shahid Waheed.
The Justice Faez Isa-led bench while hearing a suo motu case regarding the grant of 20 marks to Hafiz-e-Quran for seeking admission to MBBS/BDS degree, had ordered to postpone cases being heard under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.
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The order read “The interest of citizens therefore will be best served to postpone the hearing of this case, and all of the other cases under Article 184(3) of the Constitution till the matters are first attended to by making requisite rules in terms of Article 191 of the Constitution.”
The bench further held that neither the Constitution nor the rules granted to the chief justice or the registrar the power to make special benches, select judges who will be on other benches and decide the cases that they will hear.
On Tuesday, Justice Ijazul Ahsan-led 6 judges bench conducted hearing during which lawyer Afnan Kundi said the practice of granting 20 marks to Hafiz-e-Quran continued till 2018 under certain rules, but had been abolished in 2021 when new rules were enacted.
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Justice Muneeb Akhtar remarked that this suo motu was taken in 2022 while the fact was that after enacting new rules in 2012, the notice had automatically become ineffective.
After hearing the arguments, the six judge larger bench led by Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan dropped the suo motu proceedings which was earlier heard by a bench led by Justice Isa examining the regulation about grant of 20 additional marks to a Hafiz-e-Quran student while admitting them for an MBBS/BDS degree.
