IHC full court meeting approves Practice and Procedure rules

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) full court meeting on Wednesday approved the Establishment Service Rules and Practice and Procedure Rules without discussion by a majority vote.

Out of 11 judges, five voted against the rules while six voted in favour of the approval.

The matter of investigation, inquiry or action as regards the defects of the IHC building was referred to the government with the unanimous approval of the full court.

All 11 judges attended the full-court meeting, which was chaired by IHC Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, and lasted only 35 minutes.

A request was made by a judge to postpone the meeting for a few days for discussion and consultation on the rules, which was rejected.

The Establishment Service Rules and Practice and Procedure Rules were approved by a majority vote without discussion. Chief Justice Dogar, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro, Justice Muhammad Azam Khan, Justice Muhammad Asif and Justice Inaam Ameen Minhas voted in favour of approving the rules.

Senior puisne judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz opposed the approval of the rules.

The demand made by two of the judges in their letters for an amendment to the agenda of the full-court meeting was rejected. The letters of Justice Sattar and Justice Khan regarding the change in the meeting agenda were not discussed.

It was revealed during the full court meeting that the initial draft of the amendment to the service rules was allegedly lost. The issue of the initial draft of the amendment to the rules going missing was also discussed in the meeting.

In the full-court meeting, all the judges unanimously approved the first two agenda items: referring the issue of defects in the IHC building to the government, and decisions regarding the powers of family court judges.