Suspension of 11 judges: Judge recuses himself from hearing case

Justice Shamsi was part of the committee that suspended the judges.

LAHORE: Justice Kazim Raza Shamsi of the Lahore High Court on Friday excused himself from hearing identical petitions of 11 lower court judges challenging their suspension.

The judge said as the petitioners have challenged the decision of the LHC administration committee of which he was a member, it was not appropriate for him to take up this matter as a judge.

He sent the files to the LHC chief justice for fixing the case before some other bench.

Previously, Justice Shamsi had fixed March 17 for hearing but due to request for adjournment by one of the petitioners, Justice Shamsi adjourned the matter for March 24.

Through their counsels, the suspended judges submitted in their petitions they were functioning smoothly till June 28, 2016 when suddenly they were made officers on special duty (OSD), the day when incumbent chief justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah took oath as CJ.

Advocate Tipu Salman Makhdoom, counsel for one of the petitioners Shehzad Aslam, submitted there never had been any complaint against him and all of his Performance Evaluation Reports (PERs) are excellent.

On August 19, 2015 he said the provincial judicial selection board recommended promotions of the civil judges but their promotion was deferred like some other judges. He said the committee was directed to submit its report within three weeks.

The committee instead of submitting its report within three weeks, constituted another subcommittee consisting of five sitting and five retired district and sessions judges.

The subcommittee gave its recommendations to hold their promotion and put them under suspension, he said.

He added his client along with others were condemned without being given an opportunity to defend their positions.

The counsels argued the subcommittee that constitutes five serving and five retired DSJs could not provide recommendations for promotions of judges who never worked under them. None of these serving or retired DSJs ever worked with their clients, hence they could not make any recommendations about their performance.

They prayed the court that all the proceedings and administrative orders passed against their clients be declared illegal and unconstitutional.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2017.