The Federal Constitutional Court began its formal work in Islamabad as two more judges took oath and completed the first full composition of the newly created court under the Twenty Seventh Constitutional Amendment, and the development marks a major shift in the country’s judicial structure because several powers of the Supreme Court are now being transferred to this new constitutional forum which has been set up with equal representation from all provinces, and the oath ceremony was held in the Islamabad High Court where Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan administered the oath to Justice Rozi Khan Barrech and Justice Arshad Hussain Shah while earlier three other judges had already taken oath completing the seven member bench structure of the new institution.
The amendment changes the way constitutional cases are handled and it also shifts the power of suo motu from the Supreme Court to the Federal Constitutional Court which may now take suo motu on petitions, and under the new model the president and prime minister have important roles in appointments while the senior most judge among the Supreme Court and FCC judges will take charge as the top judge after the end of the current chief justice’s tenure, and this shift is part of a wider judicial restructuring that has dissolved constitutional benches and transferred the authority of bench formation to a three member committee led by the chief justice under the amended Supreme Court Practice and Procedure law.
The retirement age for FCC judges has been fixed at sixty eight years which is three years higher than that of the Supreme Court judges, and Chief Justice Aminuddin has already constituted three benches to begin hearing cases with Bench One including himself Justice Najafi and Justice Hussain while Bench Two consists of Justice Rizvi and Justice Agha and Bench Three comprises Justice Farooq and Justice Rozi Khan Barrech as the court starts its work from the Islamabad High Court building where new courtroom arrangements have been made to accommodate the shift of jurisdiction from the Supreme Court to the Federal Constitutional Court.
