IHC CJ summons full-court meeting today

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar has summoned a full court meeting at the start of the new judicial year. Chaired by Justice Dogar, the full court meeting will take place at 2pm on Wednesday (today).

Two judges, Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, have written to the chief justice to demand the inclusion of additional points in the meeting’s agenda.

All the judges of the IHC have been informed about the full court meeting. Instructions have been issued for all the judges to attend the meeting. According to sources, Justice Sattar and Justice Khan have sent copies of their letters to the chief justice to all the judges and the registrar.

A copy of Justice Sattar’s four-page letter has surfaced. “Do the judges of the IHC today believe that they are fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities? Do the judges believe that citizens consider them protectors of their fundamental rights?” asks Justice Sattar in his letter to the chief justice.

“Has the IHC made efforts to establish the district judiciary an independent institution? There is a lack of transparency in preparing rosters and fixing cases. We tell officers daily in our decisions that they are neither kings nor are their powers without limits.”

Justice Sattar laments that when fixing cases, additional judges are being assigned cases while senior judges are being ignored. “In exercising administrative powers, should judges and the chief justice not remember that they are not kings but public officials?” he writes.

“Your office is refusing to issue cause lists in some cases, which is affecting the independence of the judiciary. We have also seen the issuance of rosters that deprive me and others of single benches.”

He says in his letter that senior judges have been excluded from the administrative committee in violation of rules, while additional and transfer judges have been included.

“You have made it mandatory for judges to obtain NOCs for travelling abroad, as if judges have been placed on the exit control list. It takes decades to build institutions, but it takes no time to destroy them.”