The Judicial Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday approved the name of the Lahore High Court (LHC) judge Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi for elevation to the Supreme Court. A meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) was held to consider Justice Naqvi’s name for elevation to the apex court as a position in the top court remains vacant after the retirement of former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa. Earlier, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed had proposed Justice Naqvi’s name. Currently, Justice Naqvi is the third senior-most LHC judge and is known for his expertise in criminal law. In case of elevation, he will work as the Supreme Court judge until August 31, 2025. Justice Naqvi has authored more than 37000 judgments including the last month order that declared a special court’s Dec 17, 2019 verdict in a high treason case unconstitutional. He had also banned media coverage of the MQM founder Altaf Hussain. Justice Naqvi also came into limelight when he ordered then Punjab government to make Model Town incident report public. Recently, he granted bail to PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) case. Sources said representatives of superior bars have decided not to oppose Justice Naqvi’s elevation to the apex court.