JCP recommends five names for PHC’s additional judges

ISLAMABAD: Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Monday recommended five names for additional judges of Peshawar High Court, while deferred the 11 names for Lahore High Court (LHC).

The JCP meeting for appointment of judges in the superior courts was held here in the Supreme Court with Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khan Khosa in the chair. Four senior judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, one retired judge of apex court, Attorney General for Pakistan, federal Law Minister, representative of Pakistan Bar Council, and the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court also attended the meeting.

The names suggested for the appointment of additional judges of PHC include Waqar Ahmed, Muhammad Naeem, Ali Ahmed, Tariq Afridi and Sahibzada Asadullah.

The JCP was constituted under the 18th Constitutional Amendment. The recommended names will now go to the Parliamentary Committee on Judges Appointment, which has the authority to approve or disapprove any name.

The sources said that the commission after examining 13 names for additional judges of LHC dropped them and asked its chief justice to send fresh names. The sources added that the LHC chief justice had sent the names to the JCP after consulting with the High Court judges. The names included 10 lawyersKhalid Masood Chaudhry from Sialkot, Malik Waqar Haider Awan and Asif Saeed Rana from Multan, Abdul Rehman Aurangzeb from Bahawalpur, advocate Muhammad Zubair Khalid, Mushtaq Ahmed Mohal, advocate Nasir Mehmood, Barrister Khalid Waheed Khan, Ansar Nawaz Mirza, and Muhammad Ilyas Sheikh from Lahore. It also included three Sessions Judges Shakil Ahmed, Safdar Saleem and Humayun Imtiaz.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association have been demanding that the JCP rules 2010 should be amended. They believe that discretionary powers of the chief justice should be restructured in the process of judges’ appointment.