Yaseen Azad, the Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) president-elect said, on Monday, that judges’ appointment to superior courts should be based on merit.
Addressing his first press conference after being elected, while flanked by the incumbent president Asma Jahangir, newly-elected secretary Aslam Zaar and vice president Imrana Parveen Baloch, Azad said that there were a lot of honest and good judges in lower courts who did not make it to superior courts.
“We are gravely concerned about this,” he said, adding that judges’ elevation to Supreme Court should not be decided on the basis of their political links.
Echoing Asma Jahangir, he said, “We will support the good steps taken by the Supreme Court and strongly criticise wrongdoings. No institution should go beyond its constitutional limits otherwise it will harm the country”.
Azad also criticised media’s coverage of SCBA elections saying that media had supported his opponent.
The outgoing SCBA president, Asma Jahangir, while talking to the media, also criticised the way in which Supreme Court judges are appointed.
“A junior judge and a retired judge from Sindh have been transferred to the Supreme Court,” she said.
Asma Jahangir said that the government and judiciary had not been allowed to interfere in bar matters during her tenure and hoped that “the practice will continue in the future.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2011.
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