The Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) and the district bar associations have taken exception to reports about the appointment of three lawyers from other provinces and one from Karachi as ad hoc judges of SHC.
At a crowded press conference at Hyderabad Press Club on Wednesday, the lawyers' representatives condemned the proposal under which they said those lawyers are likely to be elevated to the SHC.
The Sindh Bar Council's Advocate Sajjad Ahmed Chandio, SHCBA's President Ghulamullah Chang and other lawyers cautioned that the legal fraternity would launch a protest movement if the names of the lawyers, who do not belong to Sindh, are not removed from the proposal.
The lawyers facing objection include Barrister Abdul Rehman, Advocate Khurram Rasheed, Advocate Sana Mehnaz and Advocate Kashif Paracha. The first three belong to Kashmir and the fourth one to Karachi. Their names have been sent to the Judicial Council of Pakistan for elevation. "The appointments of the lawyers of other provinces in the SHC is an injustice to Sindh and its people," said Advocate Chandio.
According to him, Sindh Bar Council or SHCBA were not consulted or taken into the confidence over the matter. He contended that under a plan, judicial officers and lawyers from Sindh were being sidelined when it came to the elevation of judges in the superior judiciary.
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"This is despite the fact that some of the superior judges from Sindh have been credited for giving historic judgments." Advocate Chandio said if the lawyers from other provinces have to be appointed in the SHC, a quota in other provincial high courts should also be fixed for the advocates from Sindh.
He went on to claim that no Sindhi judge among the existing supreme court's justices is likely to become the chief justice of Pakistan. "The justices from SHC are elevated to the apex court when only two to three years are left in their retirement so that they couldn't become the CJP."
Advocate Chang said the list of the lawyers names should be reviewed and the names of legal practitioners who do not belong to Sindh should be expunged. He demanded that only the lawyers from Sindh should be appointed in the SHC. "The history of the SHC in the matters of the elevations is full of examples of injustice with the lawyers of Sindh who have always been ignored."
He recalled that not only lawyers, but also common people of Sindh played active roles in all the historical struggles for the restoration and independence of the judiciary.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 12th, 2022.
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