• “Judge who rules against this setup’s desires labelled ‘pro-PTI’.”
• “Max no of current SC judges appointed during ex-CJP Isa’s tenure.”
• Reema Omer rebuts conspiracy, need for “purge” in the top court.
  

As the country’s judiciary remains a key institution in Pakistan’s constitutional trichotomy of powers, it has faced various emerging challenges and turmoil including an apparent conspiracy to include pro-Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI) judges in the Supreme Court.

Categorically rebutting this presumption, legal expert Reema Omer has said that the government’s bid to back the narrative that the SC’s current composition reflects a conspiracy by former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief General (retd) Faiz Hamid and ex-chief justices Saqib Nisar, Asif Saeed Khosa, Gulzar Ahmed and Umar Ata Bandial — which requires a “purge” — was in fact a “complete fabrication”.

Expanding on the reasoning behind her assessment in a series of posts on X, Omer goes on to comprehensively elaborate on the current SC judges, their appointees, apparent inclinations, and how they are perceived by various stakeholders.

Out of the 17 SC judges, argues the expert, three were appointed by ex-CJP Nisar including Justices Munib Akhtar, Mansoor Ali Shah and current CJP Yahya Afridi.

She contends that senior puisne judge Justice Shah was loved by the current setup and hated by the PTI until his reserved seat judgements — wherein the apex court’s full bench led by Justice Shah held the former ruling party eligible for reserved seats by an 8-5 majority verdict.

The Imran Khan founder party’s resentment, she contends, was based on the senior puisne judge’s role in the judgements related to the Qazi Faez Isa reference and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab elections.

Meanwhile, current CJP Afridi, Omer adds, is in fact trusted by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government to appoint him as the country’s top judge.

Moving on, three more judges — appointed by ex-CJP Gulzar — are Justices Ayesha Malik, Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Jamal Khan Mandokhail.

With Justice Mandokhail being “viewed very favourable by this government,” Omer says that Justice Mazhar is too one of the “preferred judges” who upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to deprive the PTI of its bat electoral symbol along with other verdicts against the former ruling party.

Another four judges, although appointed by former CJP Bandial, also have no apparent inclination towards the PTI. These include Justice Athar Minallah who not only became Bandial’s most vocal critic but himself was subject to campaigns against him run by the PTI.

Similarly, the current government views Justice Musarrat Hilali favourably. In contrast, Justices Shahid Waheed and Hasan Azhar Rizvi were nominated by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) law minister with the then attorney general voting for them.

Furthermore, the maximum number of current SC judges, Omer contends, was in fact appointed during the tenure of ex-CJP Isa such as Justices Irfan Saadat, Naeem Akhter Afghan, Shahzad Ahmed Khan, Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Shahid Bilal Hassan.

However, she believes that the current rulers were not happy with Justice Abbasi and Justice Saadat and were sidelining them.

“Were they also part of Gen (retd) Faiz’s plan to capture SC?” she questions.

Additionally, censuring the coalition government for weaponising the separate issue of elevation of junior judges to the SC in an attempt to argue that this was also a conspiracy to fill the SC with pro-PTI judges, the legal expert asserts that Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan — who also heads the SC’s constitutional bench — was fifth in the Lahore High Court in seniority when he was elevated as an apex court judge by ex-CJP Khosa.

“Clearly, any judge who rules against this setup’s desires is labelled ‘pro-PTI’ and a member of ‘Faiz group’.

“And this ‘conspiracy’ myth is nothing but a tool to manufacture outrage against the judiciary to give legitimacy to the government’s attempt at judicial capture,” she concludes.