ISLAMABAD/ PESHAWAR: Three judges from different high courts in the country have been assigned to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) amid speculations that the capital court’s next chief justice would be a “transferred judge”.
According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, Sindh High Court (SHC) Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro and Balochistan High Court Justice Muhammad Asif have been transferred to the IHC.
The notification stated that President Asif Ali Zardari approved the transfer in exercise of the powers conferred under clause (1) of Article 200 of the Constitution.
According to sources, Justice Sarfraz Dogar will be the senior most judge after Chief Justice Amir Farooq of the Islamabad High Court.
Sources say that Justice Muhammad Asif, who came from the Balochistan High Court, became an additional judge recently, while Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro, a judge of the Sindh High Court, became a judge of the High Court two years ago. According to sources, Justice Khadim Hussain will be senior to Justice Saman Rifat in the seniority list of the Islamabad High Court.
The development came a day after five IHC judges expressed concerns over media reports claiming that a “transferred judge” would be considered for the capital high court’s top slot.
The letter — signed by Justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Babar Sattar, Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Saman Rafat Imtiaz — was addressed to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, LHC Chief Justice Aalia Neelum and SHC Chief Justice Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui.
The letter had the names of Justices Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, but their signatures were missing.
The letter came as incumbent Chief Justice Aamer Farooq is being considered for elevation to the Supreme Court. The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), scheduled to meet on Feb 10, would pick eight judges from five high courts.
Traditionally, the senior puisne judge of a high court is appointed as the chief justice. However, the JCP last year introduced new rules to bypass the seniority criterion following the enactment of the 26th Amendment.
The judicial commission proposed that the chief justice of a high court could be appointed from the panel of five senior-most judges.
In the letter, the judges urged CJP Yahya Afridi not to advise the president to undertake any such transfer, noting that the purpose of the transfer from the LHC, as being reported, was that the transferred judge is to be considered for the position of IHC chief justice.
“This just cannot be under the Constitution. The transferred judge would need to take a fresh oath under Article 194 of the Constitution, for serving in a new High Court. Correspondingly, his seniority would be determined from the date of the oath he takes to serve at the Islamabad High Court,” the letter stated.
“Such a permanent transfer of a judge to the Islamabad High Court would be against the spirit of the Constitution, detrimental to the independence of the judiciary, usurpation of established judicial norms and also wholly unjustifiable. It would set a pernicious precedent whose ramifications are going to be extremely far-reaching,” it concluded.
Earlier, The News had reported that lawyers of Islamabad came out against the appointment of the chief justice of IHC from another high court. They demanded that no judge other than the judges of the IHC be made the chief justice.
Islamabad High Court Bar Association President Riasat Ali Azad and Islamabad Bar Association President Naeem Ali Gujjar issued a joint statement on behalf of both the bars in which the authorities had been warned that no judge other than the judges of IHC should be appointed chief justice of the high court. They also hinted at a nationwide protest call if the demands of the lawyers were not met.
Meanwhile, Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, being the chairman, chaired the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s meeting at the Supreme Court in the federal capital on Saturday, where the commission approved nominations of two district and sessions judges and eight advocates for their appointment as additional judges in the Peshawar High Court (PHC).
The meeting considered the nomination for appointment of additional judges in the PHC, and after thorough deliberation, the JCP by majority of its total membership nominated two district and sessions judges and eight advocates for their appointment in the high court.
The nominees whose appointment was approved are Muhammad Tariq Afridi, Abdul Fayaz, Sabit Ullah Khan, Salah-ud- Din, Sadiq Ali, Syed Mudasser Ameer, Aurangzeb, Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah, and district and sessions judges Farah Jamshed and Inam Ullah Khan.
The JCP decided that the nominees, who did not secure the required majority of the total membership of the commission for finalisation of their nominations this time, may be re-nominated for future vacancies.
The JCP chairman appreciated the services rendered by the staff of the Punjab Information Technology Board for assisting the members in using the web portal for the proceedings of the meeting.
Earlier, on January 17, the JCP, by majority of its total membership, had nominated District & Sessions Judge Muhammad Azam Khan and advocate Inaam Ameen Minhas for their appointment as additional judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Similarly, it had nominated advocates Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Ayub Khan and Muhammad Najam-ud-Din Mengal for their appointment as additional judges of the Balochistan High Court (BHC).
The JCP is also scheduled to meet on February 10 for considering the appointment of eight more judges in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In this respect, the commission had sought the names of five senior judges from the chief justices of five high courts of the country.
Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Additional Advocate General (AAG) Kosar Ali Shah resigned from his position citing, what he called, discriminatory treatment by the JCP. He has sent his resignation to the KP chief minister.
In his resignation letter, Kosar Ali said that the JCP had discriminated against him. He claimed that the commission treated him unfairly for not submitting an affidavit regarding his resignation from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) membership. He said that he did not wish to continue his services under the current government.
He also expressed his gratitude to the PTI founder Imran Khan and senior advocate Qazi Anwar, who had entrusted him with the position of AAG. He requested the chief minister to accept his resignation so that he could resume his legal practice.