Lawyers moot against proposed extension to tenure of judges

PESHAWAR: The bar councils across the country on Friday rejected the proposed extension to the tenures of the chief justice and judges and warned the government of a protest movement if it introduced any constitutional amendment to this effect.

The bar councils also opposed the placement of any kind of ban on the media, urging the government not to offer jobs to the retired judges and military officers.

Briefing the media after a joint meeting of the bar councils, Ahmad Farooq Khattak Advocate, chairman of the inter-provincial coordination committee for bar councils, said the members of the bar councils from Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir attended the meeting in Peshawar.

He said that the Parliament should not support any such amendment, which calls for extending the tenure of the chief justice and judges. He said that the members of the bar councils would stage a protest outside the Parliament House if the parliamentarians supported any such legislation.

He said that the government should slash the salaries of the judges and hire more judicial officers with the money thus saved. He said that there should be a ban on the dual citizenship of government officials. He said that the bar councils condemned the treatment meted out to the lawyers in Lahore.

He said that the retired government servants must not be rehired as there were thousands of jobless and educated youth, who should be provided the jobs. He said that the full court of the Supreme Court should take up the letter written by the six judges of the Islamabad High Court and the proceedings should be broadcast live.

He said that more judges should be hired to clear the backlog as thousands of cases were pending before the courts. He said that 10 more judges should be hired for the Peshawar High Court after the merger of the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that the Supreme Judicial Council should decide complaints against judges within 90 days. He demanded the federal and provincial governments resolve the issues of the lawyer community and introduce a life insurance policy for them.

The vice-chairman of the Islamabad Bar Councils said that they had moved the Islamabad High Court against the notification of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.