Bar councils demand vacant posts of SC, high court judges be filled immediately

All provincial bar councils on Saturday demanded of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan to immediately appoint judges to vacant posts of the Supreme Court and the high courts of the provinces.

Addressing a joint press conference at the Karachi Press Club, Vice Chairman Sindh Bar Council Zulfiqar Ali Khan Jalbani, Syed Jaffer Tayyar Bukhari from the Punjab Bar Council, Mohammad Ali Khan Jadoon from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council, and Qasim Ali Gajzai from the Balochistan Bar Council said millions of cases were pending in courts, but several posts of high court judges were still vacant.

They said a bar councils’ delegation would meet the chief justice of Pakistan on December 27 to present their demand for immediate appointments of judges on vacant posts of the high courts and the Supreme Court. They said the lawyers would announce their line of action if their demands were not met.

They demanded of the parliamentarians to amend the contempt of court law, as it was being misused against lawyers. They also condemned the punishment handed down to Punjab Bar Council member Rana Asif.

They further demanded that all circuit benches of Balochistan, including Sibi, Turbat, Khuzdar and Loralai, be regularised on an urgent basis.

They also demanded from the law minister to amend the law with regard to discretionary grants given to the bar councils by the government and to ensure that proper legislation to be made so that a grant was given to every bar council.

The representatives of the bar councils demanded that a lawyers’ protection act be passed through the parliament for the protection of the lawyers as several lawyers had been killed in Punjab, while many other lawyers faced harassment in different districts of the province.

They also condemned the Punjab Bar Counil’s action and demanded that all bar councils’ members conduct the affairs of the bars under Legal and Practitioners Act and the rules.