18th amend: SC dissatisfied with new judicial policy

The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the new judicial policy is not applicable. The 17-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was hearing arguments against the 18th amendment to the constitution, focusing particularly on the role of the parliamentary committee in appointing judges of the superior courts. Justice Javed Iqbal in his remarks said that the new mechanism of judges appointment is incomplete. Justice Jawad S. Khawaja observed that the new appointment mechanism can create crisis and it did not belong to the Charter of Democracy. Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that the government has been repeatedly told to resolve the additional judges issue. He said the words about religious freedom for minorities were deliberately deleted from the Objectives Resolution; this parliament has taken a good step with including the words about religious freedom in the Constitution.