CJP told me he isn’t interested in extension: law minister

KARACHI: Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said on Friday that after the meeting of the judicial commission, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had told him in the presence of the attorney general that rumours had been circulating about his (Isa’s) extension, and that even if the rumours were true, he was not interested.

“I told him no such thing is happening at all,” he said while speaking during Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’. He said the chief justice appreciated him for clarifying the matter. Tarar noted that he informed the chief justice that work on pension reforms was however under way, which included a suggestion for increasing the age of retirement by two years across all sectors.

On that occasion, the law minister recalled, it was definitely said that when the government was considering increasing the retirement age by two years, the judges should also be considered in this regard. However, he did not mention who made that suggestion.

He said a constitutional amendment is needed to implement this, “but this doesn’t mean we necessarily want to grant an extension”. “Times have changed and people are retired at the age of 60 and sent home. There is this an opinion prevalent in the country that the retirement age should be extended by two years across the board so that we could save hundreds of billions of rupees and the pressure on the economy could ease. This way, we can also benefit from trained officers,” Tarar remarked.