Anti-terrorism courts: Four judges appointed, three seats still vacant

Government comes through after a long delay.

KARACHI:

Feeling the heat of criticism against delays, the Sindh government ordered the appointment of judges to four vacant Anti-Terrorism Courts (ATCs). Three seats remain vacant, however, including the Hyderabad court where languishing prisoners rioted a month back.

The judges have been named for two ATCs in Karachi and one each in Sukkur and Mirpurkhas. They include Bashir Khoso, Khalida Yaseen and Mustafa A Memon. There was a delay because the government was finding it hard to place lawyers from the party fold, a law department source confided.

More tellingly, though, in its announcement, the goverment said that it was the prerogative of the executive to make appointments. However, the judiciary has accepted this right but at the same time it remains watchful as it wants lawyers or judges with a good reputation to be appointed. The decision-makers in the judiciary have conveyed to the executive that it would prefer for judges with an unblemished record and integrity. “The executive is finding it difficult to reconcile with this ideal which is why this has taken so much time,” said an official of the law ministry.

Pressure has been mounting on the government to appoint the judges as the list of pending terrorism cases has grown longer each day. “And with directions and constant appraisals by the Supreme Court, the provincial government is inviting trouble,” said a senior lawyer from Hyderabad who practises on the criminal side. One of the demands by the prisoners who went on a rampage at the Hyderabad Central Prison was the appointment of a judge to hear their cases at the ATC as they had been incarcerated without trial for a year, he said. On May 28, a meeting on the appointments ended inconclusively 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.

The government had initially 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. Syed Hasan Shah Bokhari was rejected by the Judiciary. Feroz Mehmood Bhatti’s name had to be dropped because he has health problems. The names of Bashir Khoso and Khalida Yaseen were common to both Judiciary and Executive lists.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2011.