how masoomly you have said that “merit needed to be followed” when its not only MERIT. Its the decision which is BINDING just as you advocating for Iffiti’s decisions. That Al-Jihad trust decision stands binding UNLESS some other decision by larger bench over rules that. 
and Al-Jihand trust case says that the appointment will be considers “automatic” appointment just waiting for the notification. So in essense it overrides the 177. No matter how you add it, 2+2 will not be equal to 5 for Iffti this time. He is wrong but he is just in taqat ka nasha. He wants to keep Khowaja as CJ of highcourt in case he need him.