Tug of war at IHC intensifies
The tug of war between the judges newly transferred to or appointed at the capital's high court and its old guards continues as a division bench — led by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani — orders relisting of a case before a bench that was hearing it earlier.
However, following this order, Islamabad High Court (IHC) registrar office issued a new cause list on the instruction of Acting Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, with no case listed in the coming before Justice Kayani led division bench.
A division bench comprising Justice Kayani, also IHC's senior puisne judge, and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan was hearing an appeal against an accountability court's order in a case related to misappropriation of land in Islamabad E-11 Sector.
At the last hearing of the case — on April 28the matter was adjourned till May 22 due to non-availability of the bench.
However, the IHC registrar also issued a new duty roster on April 28 on the instruction of the acting chief justice, according to which the case was listed for hearing before a new bench, comprising Justice Kayani and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz. This new bench heard the case on Friday.
According to a written order issued after the hearing, the bench was told that the matter had already been partly heard by a bench consisting of Justice Kayani and Justice Khan. The bench, therefore, ordered relisting of the case before the original bench.
Following the order, a new judges' duty roster has been released. In the new roster, the division bench headed by Justice Kayani has been dissolved and is no longer included in next week's roster.
A day earlier, during the hearing of a contempt case, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan had noted that he could not pretend that there was no conflict among brother judges at the capital's high court.
"There is a conflict among judges. Why should I pretend otherwise? The gloves are off," he said.
The Ministry of Law on February 1 issued a notification for the transfer of Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro and Justice Muhammad Asifrespectively from the Lahore High Court, the Sindh High Court and the Balochistan High Court — to the IHC.