ISLAMABAD: Significant progress was reported on Saturday in the ongoing litigation over the transfer of judges, as five judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) filed a miscellaneous petition before the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) challenging the transfer of their intra-court appeal from the Supreme Court to the former. The application was filed by IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice …

LAHORE: Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza on Saturday tendered his resignation as a judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC), becoming the first judge to resign from any high court after the contentious 27th Constitutional Amendment was enacted into law. According to family sources, his resignation letter stated that in light of the latest amendment to the Constitution, he could not …

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Consti­tutional Court (FCC) formally commenced on Friday after its chief justice and four judges took oath, though the proceedings were overshadowed by a boycott from five senior judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and questions are being raised over what principle, if any, guided these appointments. Critics point out that if seniority was the yardstick, none …

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has accepted the resignations of Supreme Court judges Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, a post on the President’s official X account said on Friday. The two judges had handed in their resignations yesterday, hours after the contentious 27th Constitutional Amendment was signed into law by the president, describing the legislation as an affront to …

ISLAMABAD: As the government made moves toward the passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment, former judges and top lawyers on Monday urged Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi to summon a full court meeting to discuss the proposed legislation. The request came in a letter, dated November 9 and a copy of which is available with Dawn, that was …

ISLAMABAD: Expounding on an earlier ruling, the Supreme Court on Thursday held that participation of women in the public sphere was not a benevolent concession, but a realisation of a right long denied. “When women contribute across education, administration, policy, health, and justice, institutions draw upon a broader spectrum of experience, enhancing the quality, legitimacy and responsiveness of governance,” observed …

ISLAMABAD: The Su­­p­reme Court has recorded its first decline in pending cases in nearly a decade. For nearly a decade, the number of pending cases in the Supreme Court had been steadily increasing — rising from 25,686 cases in 2015 to a record high of over 60,446 in early 2024. But for the first time in almost ten years, the …

ISLAMABAD: The debate over whether a full court can be formed to hear challenges to the 26th Amendment continued on Thurs­day, with one of the judges of the Constitutional Bench (CB) saying that Article 191A, which pertains to the formation of the CB, could not be ignored in the case at hand. During the hearing of the case by the …

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court’s Senior Puisne Judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar have said that changes recently made to the Code of Conduct for superior court judges will restrict judicial freedom and create avenues for internal and external control, it emerged on Tuesday. On October 18, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) approved far-reaching amendments to the Code of …

ISLAMABAD: Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar on Tuesday remarked that the Supreme Court’s regular and constitutional benches (CBs) were “branches of one tree” as an eight-member CB heard arguments on petitions challenging the 26th Amendment. The Amendment was passed by Parliament during an overnight session in October last year, with the PTI claiming seven of its lawmakers were abducted to gain …