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Summary
In its most-awaited ruling, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Parliament to review Article 175-A, pertaining to judges appointment to the superior courts, for its being detrimental for judiciarys freedom. Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry announced the Supreme Court's verdict on the petitions challenging certain clauses of the 18th Amendment. Parliament is asked to review Article 175-A, for it has harmed judiciarys freedom, the CJ stated. The CJ, however, allowed veto power to the Judicial Committee, and added that Both Parliament and the Judiciary are indispensable to each other and both should work to uphold the rule of law. Article175-A of the Constitution will be sent back to the Parliament, according to the verdict.It should be mentioned here that Article 175A of the Constitution deals with the appointment of judges of the higher judiciary.The ruling also dictates that under Article-68 of the Constitution, the behavior of judges of higher judiciary could not be brought under discussion at the Parliament.The court has been adjourned till January 2011. The Supreme Court had started hearing of the case on May 24 and it took four months on the part of both sides to complete the arguments. The hearing continued continued with brief intervals for more than four months. A larger bench had concluded the hearing of the case on September 30 and reserved its judgment.Around 20 petitions were filed in the SC challenging the amendment. However, most of the petitioners challenged the new procedure of appointment of judges in the superior and lower courts, under the amended Article 175-A of the Constitution.The first petition was filed by Nadeem Ahmed Advocate through his counsel Akram Sheikh. The second petition was filed by the District Bar Association Rawalpindi through Muhammad Ikram Chaudhry, who is also a candidate in the upcoming Supreme Court Bar elections. The third petition was filed by the Wattan Party through its chairman Barrister Zafar Ullah Khan. The fourth one was filed by the Supreme Court Bar Association through Hamid Khan and the fifth by the President of Pakistan Muslim League-Zia Ijaz-ul-Haq. The PML-Z chief mainly objected to article 63-A of the Constitution, which empowers a party leader to disqualify a party member from his membership to the parliament, even if he is not an elected representative.J Salik, representing the minorities through his counsel Zulfiqar Bhutta, also filed a petition and challenged the amendment regarding the rights granted to minorities in the Constitution.Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had reserved its judgment on petitions seeking to strike down certain provisions of the 18th amendment, especially those dealing with the appointment of top judges. The chief justice had said the verdict would be announced at some appropriate time later. Sh Rasheed urged Govt to accept SC's authorityChief of Awami Muslim League Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, while talking to Dunya News, said that the government has to accept apex courts authority. He however parried more question, saying that nothing could be said till the detailed judgment regarding the 18th amendment.
