Rejected: Petition challenging judges’ appointment dismissed

Former judge says the proposal for appointing nine additional sessions judges and 20 civil judges was illegal.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the appointments of 29 judges in the lower courts.

Former civil judge Saeed Khursheed Ahmed had earlier contended before the court that the proposal for appointing nine additional sessions judges and 20 civil judges was illegal. He had requested the court to stop the hiring process and repatriate the judges who had been absorbed to their respective judicial services.

Justice Muhammad Azim Khan Afridi rejected the petition and the civil miscellaneous application in which Ahmed had requested the court to constitute a larger bench to hear the case. According to the petition, Ahmed had maintained that the IHC adminstration had already absorbed more than a dozen judicial officers in district courts prior to the proposed appointments.

The petitioner had argued that fixing a 50 per cent quota for residents of the Islamabad Capital Territory was also a negation of the idea of a federation as it would lead to polarisation between the country’s regions.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2012.