Judges’ appointments: Lawyers demand amendment to Article 175

‘CJP has too much power over appointments, bars should have a role’.

LAHORE:

Lawyers have called for amendment of the Constitution so that lawyers have a say in judges’ appointments and to reduce the chief justice of Pakistan’s stranglehold on the process.

Speaking at a seminar at the Karachi Shuhada Hall of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, senior lawyers demanded that Article 175-A be amended to make the appointment of judges more transparent.

The speakers included Pakistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Sayed Qalb-e-Hasan, former Supreme Court Bar Association president Asma Jahangir, LHCBA President Abid Saqi, and Awami National Party Secretary General Advocate Ahsan Wyne. The seminar was titled ‘Deconstructing Article 175-A of the Constitution for Appointment of Judges in the Superior Judiciary’.

The participants in the seminar adopted a resolution presented by the LHCBA president stating that they had no confidence in the current method for the appointment of judges. It stated that Clause 4 of Article 175-A granted the Judicial Commission of Pakistan the power  to make rules regulating procedure. This clause had been misinterpreted to give the chief justice of Pakistan “sole discretionary powers” to nominate judges, it stated. “In practice, even the chief justices of the high courts are subject to the choices made by the chief justice of Pakistan. The LHCBA deeply regrets that the judiciary has taken away substantive powers of nominating candidates [from] all other members,” it reads.

Non-judge members are not allowed to recommend anyone for elevation to the judiciary, it stated. “In reality, the CJP alone decides which name to put forward and gains support from other judges by using his seniority as undue influence ... Non-judge members and bar representatives have denounced this practice and called for amending the rules but so far this demand has not been considered.”

The Supreme Court has also reduced the parliamentary committee on judicial appointments to a rubber stamp for the “arbitrary decisions of the CJP pushed in the JC”, reads the resolution. The LHCBA, it stated, was disappointed at “the very low level of human material that is being elevated to the bench. It will affect the justice system of the country for decades to come ... [and] keep the democratic process crippled. The LHCBA demands that the rules of the JC be amended so that a consensus is reached.”

The parliamentary committee, the resolution stated, should “assert its constitutional obligations in screening the names nominated to the parliamentary committee”.

The LHCBA demanded that Article 175-A be amended so that the presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association and High Court Bar Associations were included in the Judicial Commission. “All members of the JC should with consensus nominate a former judge to the JC. All members of the JC should be able to suggest names for appointment to the judiciary,” states the resolution.

The LHCBA said that the present method of appointment was perpetuating mediocrity and creating cartels in the judiciary. “Competence and integrity are the central qualities of any judge. Regrettably these two qualities are acutely scarce in today’s judiciary,” the resolution reads. “Justice will suffer and the judiciary will gradually lose all respect if the present trend is not revised.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2013.