Senator Barríster Ali Zafar, while citing the “controversy around the judges of the Superior Court of Islamabad (IHC)”, requested the president of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Aphridi to postpone the meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan scheduled for tomorrow, emerged on Sunday.
The IHC was recently subject to the transfer of three judges from other courts higher than their ranks. Subsequently, Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, who was a senior judge of Puisne in the IHC before the transfer of Judge Sarfaraz Doggar, was eliminated from the main days of the decision -making committee, together with a series of other notifications and measures that reorganized the Antiquity list of the High Court.
Before these transfers, five out of 10 IHC judges had written a strongly drafted letter to the President and the CJP in addition to the main judges of other higher courts, opposing new inclusions. On Tuesday, these judges sent a representation to Judge Farooq and the CJP Yahya Afridi not to place them on the seniority list.
Development caused discussions within the legal community with respect to judicial appointments and antiquity criteria. Four Judges of the Supreme Court (SC), Judge Mansoor Ali Shah and Judges Munib Akhtar, Athar Minallah and Ayesha Malik, also referred to the problems that affect the IHC in a letter to CJP Aphridi.
In a letter dated February 8, seen by Dawn.comThe PTI leader, Zafar, requested a postponement of the JCP meeting scheduled for tomorrow, stating that he was “concerned about the controversy around the age of IHC judges.”
He said that it was “deeply worrying that serious objections have been raised in writing” by the judges of the SC and the IHC, and added that “the subsequent creation of a new list of antiquity seriously undermines the perception of the independence of [the] judicial”.
“It is also severely worrying that these objections have exposed the judges transferred to unfair criticisms related to their impartiality and integrity,” he said.
“The constitutional provisions related to the transfer and the question of antiquity must have a harmonious interpretation,” he added.
He said there was “perception (s) between the general public and many in the legal community” that the developments can be linked to the high profile appeals of the founder of PTI Imran Khan and his spouse, Bushra Bibi.
“To avoid such perceptions and maintain public trust, it is important that the JCP acts with greater care, caution and transparency,” said the letter.
He said that the JCP meeting for the appointment of judges for the SC has a “direct link with the problem in question.”
The JCP meeting would lead to the appointment of judges to the SC and should be determined on who will be eligible, “the most existing judges of the IHC before the new list or the highest judges of the IHC according to the new list,” he said.
“In addition, if the president of the Supreme Court of IHC is appointed as SC judge, the position of CJ IHC would be vacant,” he said.
The letter said: “The question of who is eligible for appointment as the superior court of the president of Islamabad “
Barríster Zafar firmly urged to postpone the JCP meeting “until the antiquity of IHC judges is decided and resolved.
He said that if the commission must proceed with the meeting, the commission “must resolve not to consider any of the judges transferred” to the IHC eligible for their appointment such as the CJ IHC or a SC judge.
The JCP will meet tomorrow to consider filling eight vacancies of judges in the SC. The JCP approves the judicial appointments. It was reconstituted to include four members of Parliament by the Law of the Constitution (twenty sixth amendment), 2024, which brought numerous changes related to the judiciary.
The Constitutional Bank of the SC has assumed challenges to the amendment, however, there are several calls for a full court to listen to the matter.
