Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1997

This 1997 Act implements Article 176 of the Constitution, which requires that the number of judges on the Supreme Court of Pakistan (beyond the Chief Justice) be fixed by an Act of Parliament rather than left open-ended.

Section 1 confirms the Act covers the whole of Pakistan and came into force immediately upon enactment on 1 November 1997. Section 2 is the operative provision, and it has been amended since the Act was first passed: the extract shows it was substituted by Act No. XXX of 2024. As it currently stands, Section 2 caps the maximum number of Supreme Court judges, other than the Chief Justice, at thirty-three.

Because the extract explicitly shows a 2024 amendment to the key numeric figure (the judge cap), readers should treat the number thirty-three as the latest known figure at the time of this text but should verify it against the current official gazette text, since the number has already been revised at least once and could be revised again.

This is a short, purely structural law -- it does not deal with judicial appointments, qualifications, or procedure, only with setting the maximum permitted size of the Supreme Court bench.