3 lawyers proposed for appointment as IHC judges

Names forwarded by CJ Athar Minallah will be discussed in JCP meeting next month

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah has proposed three names for appointment to the high court of the federal capital.

Sources have disclosed to The Express Tribune, that Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa has summoned a meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on May 2 to consider the names of three nominees for appointment as IHC judges.

It has been learnt that IHC Chief Justice Minallah has recommended the names of Karachi-based lawyer Kashif Sarwar Paracha, Islamabad Bar Council member Faiz Jandran and Balochistan-based lawyer Evaz Zehri as judges of the high court.

Senior lawyers have apparently expressed their satisfaction over these nominees.

At the moment there are just four judges in the IHC, including Chief Justice Minallah who had been elevated to the IHC in June 2014.

There is Justice Aamer Farooq of Lahore who was elevated to the high court as an additional judge on January 1, 2015.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, a bonafide Islooite, had been elevated to the high court on December 23, 2015.

Lastly, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb hails from the Swat valley in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He was elevated to the IHC on December 23, 2015.

According to the IHC Act 2010, the capital’s high court consists of a chief justice and six other judges who are appointed from the provinces and other territories of Pakistan in accordance with the Constitution.

However, after the sacking of Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and the retirement of former IHC chief justice Anwar Khan Kasi in quick succession last year meant that the IHC bench was left understaffed.

Currently, more than 15,000 cases are pending in the IHC — a humongous task for just four judges to clear on their own or even seven.

In this regard, the federal government has approved a bill to increase numbers of judges in the IHC from seven to ten.

“The existing sanctioned strength of the judges of the IHC is six plus one chief justice as per section 3(1) of the aforesaid act,” reads the bill’s list of objectives.

“The present strength of judges compared to [the large] number of pending cases is not sufficient besides the institution of fresh cases which is increasing every year. It is, therefore, necessary to increase the strength of the judges of the IHC from seven to 10, including the chief justice, to overcome the difficulties of litigant public qua early disposal of long pending cases,” it added. This bill has already been approved by the National Assembly and is currently awaiting voting in the upper house of Parliament.

Earlier in April, the IHC had appointed three additional district and sessions judges and three civil judges from the Punjab Judicial Service on deputation basis for three years in the district and civil courts of the federal capital.

These judicial officers were appointed against existing vacancies in the court, read a notice from the IHC dated April 15.

The judicial officers transferred include Additional District and Sessions Judge (AD&SJ) Muhammad Ata Rabbani who was appointed to the civil district and sessions courts of Islamabad division east, AD&SJ Nasir Javed Rana was appointed to the civil district and sessions courts of Islamabad division west, AD&SJ, AD&SJ Muhammad Ali Warriach was appointed to the civil district and sessions courts of Islamabad division west, Civil Judge Nadia Ali was appointed to the civil district and sessions courts of Islamabad division east, Civil Judge Yasir Hafeez was appointed to the civil district and sessions courts of Islamabad division east and Civil Judge Saira Irum was appointed to the civil district and sessions courts of Islamabad division west. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2019.