Islamabad: The year 2023 proved to be a heavy year for the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The year 2023 proved to be a heavy year for the Supreme Court, the tradition of annulment of Parliament’s legislation, failure to implement its own decisions and clear division among the judges, protests by political parties outside the Supreme Court are the facts that led to the Supreme Judiciary kept under controversy.
Umar Atta Bandiyal, who has a quiet temperament, became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the year 2023. He was the 28th Chief Justice of Pakistan. Whether it is a matter of holding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or a matter of parliament voting against party policy, only a special bench under the head of the Chief Justice would hear such cases.
Former Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandiyal became more controversial when he gave a decision on May 17, 2022 on a reference sent by President Dr. Arif Alvi regarding the interpretation of Article 63A of the Constitution, saying that any member of the Assembly party policy. If he votes against, his membership will be terminated and his vote will not be counted. This was the decision of the Supreme Court which removed Hamza Shahbaz from the post of Chief Minister and made Pervaiz Elahi the Chief Minister. Now, on January 2023, the assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were dissolved. After which the Chief Justice decided to hold elections in both the provinces but it could not be implemented.
Former Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandiyal had also given a decision to issue an injunction on the Practice and Procedure Bill , the judicial commission on the issue of audio leaks headed by the current Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa was also stopped from proceeding by a five-member larger bench headed by former Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandian. which was objected by the government at that time.
In the year 2023, there was a clear division among the Supreme Court judges on many issues, the current Chief Justice strongly opposed the appointment of judges in the high courts, the implementation of the Practice and Procedure Bill and the issue of not calling the Supreme Judicial Council Law Session. And at that time, Justice Qazi Faiz Isa did most of his work in chambers
