A six-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has been accused of disregarding senior judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s order to stop suo motu proceedings. The bench, headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan and comprising Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, was constituted to review a decision by a special SC bench led by Justice Isa. The special bench had ordered all suo motu cases to be shelved under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. However, Justice Isa, while hearing a case concerning the grant of additional 20 marks to Hafiz-e-Quran pre-medical candidates for admission into MBBS/BDS courses, ordered that cases being heard under Article 184(3) be postponed until amendments were made to the Supreme Court Rules 1980 regarding the discretionary powers of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to form benches. In a note on the suo motu case, Justice Isa said the constitution of the bench was against the rules and that the larger bench did not constitute a constitutional court, nor possess any of the jurisdictions to pass an order. Justice Isa also noted that the CJP has been designated as the ‘Master of Rolls’, which is a term not found in the Constitution, any law or even in the Supreme Court Rules, 1980. Justice Isa concluded that “decisions emanating from a courtroom overcast with the shadow of autocracy cannot displace the Constitution.”
