Accountabiliity: Amid increasing terrorism, anti-terrorism courts empty

Judiciary proposes nominees, government asks for more time.

KARACHI:

A meeting on the appointment of judges to vacant spots in the anti-terrorism courts ended inconclusively on Saturday with the chief justice asking the government to honour their recommendations and the government asking for a day or two to consult the chief minister.

All three anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) have been without judges for many months, with at least one post for more than a year and a half.

The meeting was presided over by Sindh High Court Chief Justice Mushir Alam and was attended by the prosecutor general of Sindh, law secretary, home secretary among others.

They discussed the lists, one orginally made by former SHC CJ Sarmad Jalal Osmany and endorsed by Alam. The government proposed 16 names - including former ATC judges Feroz Mehmood Bhatti and Syed Hasan Shah Bokhari besides loyalist Fakhr Alam Fakhri, Saleem Jaiser,  Fazal Qadir Memon. The names of Bashir Khoso and Khalida Yaseen were common to both lists.

The appointment was delayed because Justice Osmany was elevated to the Supreme Court and the new SHC CJ Justice Mushir Alam had to take up the case again.

Osmany recommended a number of serving and retired judges. A source in Sindh home department told The Express Tribune that the government wanted to see certain people appointed as judges and because the names recommended by the judiciary were not acceptable to it, it was delaying the process.

The law secretary asked for time in order to get instructions from the CM and get back to the judiciary, a senior decision maker said, requesting not to be named. “Let us have a few days to decide the matter, wait till Monday,” a judicial source told reporters waiting outside the meeting room. The prosecutor general of Sindh was said to have left the meeting soon after it started.

Justice Osmany’s list included:

DJ Bashir Ahmed Khoso for ATC I Karachi

DJ retired Khalida Yasmeen for ATC II

DJ Mustafa G Memon for ATC III Karachi

DJ retired Javed Alam for ATC Thatta

Shahid Shafique for ATC Sukkur

Sajjad Hussain Kolachi for ATC Khairpur

Abdul Hakeem Brohi for ATC Larkana

Bashir Ahmed Duragi for ATC Mirpurkhas

Sardar Khan Chandio for ATC Jacobabad

Islamuddin Patoli for ATC Badin

Ahmed Nawaz Shaikh for ATC Nawabshah

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2011.