Representatives of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) have demanded that the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) decide on references pending against IHC’s Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi.
Addressing a press conference late on Wednesday, IHCBA general secretary Waqas Malik demanded the SJC to decide the references. He pointed out that a three-member bench of the SC on September 26, 2016, had declared scores of appointments made during the tenure of Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, the IHC chief justice, and his successor Justice Kasi as illegal and observed that these appointments were made in a “cherry-picking” manner.
Following the verdict, a number of employees in the IHC were sacked while others - who had come from other departments – were reverted to their parent departments.
Some of the sacked employees had filed petitions requesting the apex court to review its decision. But their petition was dismissed last week.
“Justice Rehman had tendered his resignation on moral grounds and we were expecting that Justice Kasi would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor,” Malik said.
He added that being the general secretary of IHCBA, he had filed a reference before the SJC four months ago against Justice Kasi. However, he said the reference was still pending before the council.
But with the apex court dismissing a review petition against its decision, Malik demanded that the reference before the SJC should be decided as soon as possible.
The September 26, 2016, landmark judgement of the apex court declared that appointments in the IHC were made by “abusing authority” and via “cherry picking”.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2017.
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