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WEEKLY
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| 2 PCO judges of PHC seek early retirement |
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Ghulam Dastageer
PESHAWAR: Two judges of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) of November 3, 2007, filed separate applications on Monday for early retirement, official sources said.
Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani and Justice Said Maroof Khan sent applications for retirement to the PHC registrar, sources in the top provincial court told The News while requesting anonymity.
The applications, addressed to the president of Pakistan, will be forwarded to the Law Division, which will process them for further action. The president, who is the appointing authority of the superior court judges, has the prerogative to approve the applications for early retirement.
The superior court adjudicators, who took oath under PCO, were under tremendous pressure after the verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, wherein it held that the PCO judges had violated verdict of the seven-member bench of the apex court passed on November 3, 2007. The verdict had restrained the judges from taking or administering oath under any extra-constitutional act.
They were, however, not removed from their posts immediately as the judgment stated that they would be removed by the Supreme Judicial Council under Article 209 of the Constitution after references are filed against them by the federal government.
Both the judges came to their chambers on Monday but did not hold the proceedings of the court as they had forwarded their applications for retirement. Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani, belonging to Peshawar, did LLB in 1978-1980 from the Khyber Law College. He practiced as a lawyer since 1981. He was appointed the additional advocate general in 2001 and deputy attorney general in 2006.
He was elevated to the PHC as additional judge in April 2006 and got the status of a permanent judge on October 3, 2007. Justice Said Maroof Khan was a judge of an accountability court when he was elevated to the PHC in April 2006. He was also made permanent judge of the PHC on October 3, 2007.
The top provincial court will be facing shortage of judges now, as out of the 15 sanctioned posts one was vacant when the former chief justice, Tariq Pervez Khan, was elevated to the Supreme Court.
With the retirement of these two judges, the strength of the PHC will reduce to 11 while Justice Shah Jehan Khan has been on leave since the day he was superseded by his junior fellow Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who was elevated as the chief justice of PHC. Three judges of the PHC — Justice Abdul Aziz Kundi, Justice Attaullah and Justice Muhammad Safdar — will not be able to preside over the courts as they are going to perform Haj. The PHC will be working with only seven judges, which will create a lot of problems to achieve the targets set under the National Judicial Policy Committee to reduce the backlog of cases.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
