Bilawal eyes JCP seat after resignations of treasury-bench members
Two treasury-bench members of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan have resigned, and a Bilawal JCP bid is now on the table as the PPP pushes back after a string of rejected judicial nominations.
PPP Senator Farooq H Naek and PML-N MNA Sheikh Aftab stepped down from the commission. According to JCP sources, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is interested in becoming a member. The PPP chairman currently sits in the National Assembly.
Under the proposed arrangement, the PPP would take the National Assembly slot while the PML-N would take the Senate slot vacated by Sheikh Aftab.
Why the Bilawal JCP bid is controversial
The proposed change comes amid frustration inside the PPP over its failure to secure the appointment of its preferred judges to the superior courts.
Naek had proposed 33 candidates for elevation: 16 for the Sindh High Court, 10 for the Lahore High Court, five for the Balochistan High Court and two for the Islamabad High Court. The party’s choices failed to win backing.
The PPP especially wanted two of its nominees on the Sindh High Court. Neither the judicial nor the executive members of the commission supported them. Executive members also rejected Naek’s nominees for the Lahore, Islamabad and Balochistan high courts.
Naek withdrew several nominations before the meetings. The rest failed to secure the required majority.
Other setbacks deepened the party’s frustration. The PPP had asked for a six-month extension for judges on the Sindh High Court’s constitutional benches but received only three months. The non-confirmation of SHC Additional Judge Syed Fiaz-ul-Hassan Shah added to the party’s list of grievances.
Sources said the president sat on the judges’ appointment summary for weeks before approving it after an “understanding with the government”.
The PPP did manage to influence appointments to the SHC, the Peshawar High Court and the LHC last year. This year, its candidates could not get through.
Lawyers question the political turn
Legal experts have criticised the proposed reshuffle. Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed said the 26th and 27th constitutional amendments showed that political considerations now outweighed legal ones in judicial appointments. Replacing Naek with Bilawal, he said, drops even the “fig leaf of pretence” that nominees are judged on legal merit.
Advocate Rida Hosain pointed to Bilawal’s own role in championing the amendments as completing the Charter of Democracy’s “unfinished” agenda. But, she argued, “there is nothing representative or democratic about this structure”.
According to Hosain, the changes weakened judicial independence, damaged women’s rights jurisprudence, left judicial members a minority in the JCP and made high court judges subject to the commission’s “performance evaluation”. The result, she said, is that “political power has a dominant say over who sits on the bench”.
What happens next
If the proposed arrangement goes through, Bilawal would sit in the JCP as a National Assembly member, giving the PPP’s top leadership a direct say in future judicial appointments. The PML-N is expected to fill the Senate slot.
The move is likely to sharpen the debate over whether recent constitutional changes have tilted the balance of judicial appointments toward the executive.
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FAQs
Who resigned from the Judicial Commission of Pakistan?
PPP Senator Farooq H Naek and PML-N MNA Sheikh Aftab, both treasury-bench members, resigned from the commission.
Why is Bilawal Bhutto Zardari being linked to the JCP?
JCP sources say the PPP chairman is interested in becoming a member, with the proposed arrangement giving the PPP the National Assembly slot and the PML-N the Senate slot.
Why are lawyers criticising the move?
Critics argue it confirms that political considerations now drive judicial appointments, with one lawyer saying replacing Naek with Bilawal drops even the “fig leaf of pretence” of legal merit.
