ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly, the lower house of the country’s Parliament, on Monday passed six bills, including one to increase the number of the Supreme Court judges and another pertaining to the tenure of armed forces chiefs.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar presented the first bill, seeking to increase the number of apex court judges. He added that the government had proposed to increase the number of top court judges to 34.
“This amendment will increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court up to 34, so that the backlog of cases can be cleared, and that after the 26th Amendment, we can have judges to form the constitutional benches,” Tarar said.
“Our bar lobbies and the SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) have been recommending this for a while now so that the four-bar court registries in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, and Lahore can relieve their thousands of pending cases. This number has been left open for the judicial commission,” the minister went on to say. The voting on the bill was held despite the opposition protest.
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The NA also passed amendments to the Pakistan Army, Air Force, and Navy Acts to increase the tenures of service chiefs. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif presented the bill.
The bill to amend the Army Act, the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2024, sought to increase the tenure of the Chief of Army Staff from three to five years.
“In the said Act, in section 8A, in sub-section (1), for the expression ‘three (03)’ the word ‘five (05)’ shall be substituted,” the bill said.
After passing the bills, the Speaker of the House adjourned the session till Tuesday. The opposition parties strongly condemned the passing of the bills in the National Assembly and chanted slogans throughout the session.
