The lawyer Akhtar Hussain resigned as a member of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), citing “current controversies” regarding judicial appointments, arose on Monday.
According to the weakened constitutional amendment approved in October last year, the JCP, which approves the judicial appointments, was reconstituted to include four members of Parliament.
On February 14, six judges of the Supreme Court made oaths after their nomination for the JCP. The Commission meeting was boycotted by two members of PTI part of the current dispute on the transfer of judges to the Superior Court of Islamabad (IHC).
Earlier this month, Judge Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar of the Superior Court of Lahore (LHC), Judge Khadim Hussain Soomro of the Superior Court of Sindh (SHC) and Judge Muhammad Asif of the Superior Court of Baluchistan (BHC) were transferred to the IHC. The controversy focuses on the alteration of the seniority list after appointments.
In a letter dated February 21, a copy of which it is available with Dawn.comThe lawyer Hussain said: “On current controversies regarding judicial appointments, I cannot continue and, therefore, to resign as a member of JCP.”
Hussain, a main defender of the SC, recalled that the Council of the Pakistan Bar Association (PBC) had “unanimously nominated” as a member of JCP. “I kept downloading my responsibilities the best they can,” he said.
The lawyer did not specify more details about the reservations, if any, he had about the recent burst of changes in the Apex court and the IHC that followed the appointments of the judges.
Paying their greetings to the members of JCP, he assured them: “I will continue making all efforts to [the] Development and independence of judicial and democratic institutions. “
A copy of the PBC renunciation letter was also sent, according to the letter, to make a new nomination for the role of JCP under the Constitution.
According to the Constitution, one of the members should be a “main defender” of the APEX court nominated by the PBC for a period of two years.
According to the 26th amendment, the lawyer’s experience was specified as a “defender who has no less than 15 years of Practice in the SC”, even for being nominated by the PBC.
In the last development in the row on judicial appointments, five IHC judges requested the SC on February 20 to prevent Justice from providing its duties as the president of the Supreme Court of Interim IHC.
The five judges: Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Judge Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Judge Babar Sattar, Judge Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Judge Saman Rafat Imtiaz, had opposed the transfer of IHC judges.
After the transfers, they had approached the president of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (CJP) Yayha Afridi and the president of the Supreme Court of IHC Aamer Faooq to claim his age. Nor attended the oath of Justice Dogar as the president of the Supreme Court of IHC.
