The Parliament’s Appointments Committee (PAC) Chairman, Joe Osei Owusu has emphatically indicated that the Committee will proceed to vet Chief Justice nominee, Kwesi Anin Yeboah once the committee forms a quorum.
The Minority has decided to boycott the vetting scheduled for Saturday , December 21 because they believe a critical process such as that should not be rushed.
Speaking to Citi News monitored by this online news portal, www.thenewindependentonline.com, the First Deputy Speaker said the Committee will proceed with its work.
“Parliament or committees of Parliament usually advertise our meeting and when we meet all that we look out for is a quorum and once we have a quorum, we do not disaggregate the members to say who is the Minority and who is the Majority. Once the day is due and I have a quorum, we will proceed with the business of the day”, he emphasized.
Meanwhile, President Nana Akufo-Addo has nominated Justice Anin Yeboah to replace the current Chief Justice who is due for retirement later this month.
By law, he is supposed to be vetted and approved or otherwise by the Appointments Committee made up of members from both Minority and Majority side of Parliament.
The Minority in a statement had said it will resist the government’s attempts to fast track the confirmation of the nominated Chief Justice.
“The refusal of the Minority in Parliament to participate in the scheduled vetting of President’s nominee has nothing to do with the person of the nominee”.
Indicating that, the Minority is refusing to depart from the usual practice of Parliament in giving the public a two week period to submit memoranda on nominees before they are vetted.
Howevet, the Minority in its statement pointed out that, “While discussions are ongoing on the issue of the abridgment of time, the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, unilaterally caused public announcements of the proposed date of vetting without regard to the ongoing processes of dialogue on the abridgment”.
About Anin Yeboah
Justice Anin Yeboah is currently the fourth longest-serving Justice of the Supreme Court.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Agyekum Kufuor in June 2008.
Prior to that, he had served as a Justice of the High Court from 2002 to 2003 and a Justice of the Court of Appeal from 2003 to 2008.
Source: www.thenewindependentothenewindependenton.com/ Political Desk
