ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court’s senior-most judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah’s request for leave to travel to the United States has been turned down by the registrar, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts with the upcoming new judicial year conference, 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Thursday.
According to sources, Justice Shah had submitted a request on August 15 seeking leave from September 10 to 13 to attend a university event in the US. However, the Registrar of the Supreme Court denied the request, citing the new judicial year conference as the reason.
The denial of leave comes at a time when internal concerns within the Supreme Court are surfacing. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, along with three other judges, including Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Ayesha Malik, have written a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Yahya Afridi just three days ago on Monday.
In the letter, the judges expressed reservations regarding the recent approval of the Supreme Court Rules, 2025, which were passed through circulation rather than open discussion.
The judges said they recently received a letter about a full court meeting, but the agenda was limited to only one point — addressing issues arising from the new rules. However, they argued that since the full court was not originally involved in approving these rules, there is no justification to now call a full court meeting just to amend them.
They also criticised the claim that the rules were approved through “circulation”, stating that circulation is typically used for routine administrative matters, not for something as important as court rules.
The letter further mentioned that the proposed meeting refers again to a committee formed by the Chief Justice, but the judges questioned its legitimacy. They said that without resolving the main issue of how the rules were approved, attending the meeting would be of no real use.
It is also pertinent to mention here that on the same day, the CJP chaired a full court meeting at which an in-depth discussion was held on the Supreme Court Rules, 2025. Suggestions regarding the apex court rules came under discussion at the meeting that lasted for half an hour.
