Islamabad court to start working from Dec 13: Awan

Islamabad High Court will start functioning from December 13, appointment of judges and chief justice to be finalised.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Law Minister Babar Awan on Monday announced that Islamabad High Court (IHC) will start functioning from December 13.

“The appointment of seven judges and a chief justice will be finalised in the first week of December,” Awan said at an IHC Bar Association ceremony.

The IHC was automatically dissolved when the Supreme Court declared Provisional Constitution Ordinance (PCO) void ab initio. The apex court had termed the establishment of IHC illegal. The ordinance was promulgated by the then president Pervez Musharraf in 2007. All judges of superior courts, who took oath under PCO and got fresh appointments as judges and others who refused, were deposed.

The IHC is being established with immediate effect in accordance with Article 175 of the 1973 Constitution, as amended by the Constitution (18th Amendment) Act of 2010, the minister said.

The judges’ appointment will also be made in light of the 18th amendment, he added.

“One judge from every province (federal units), one from the federal capital and one from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), including the chief justice of the court, will be inducted into the court,” the law minister said.

He also informed the office-bearers of the IHC Bar Association that the capital will “have around a dozen special courts which would be authorised to take up cases relating to matters like civil, environment, narcotics, labour, banking and consumer (rights).”

Reassuring the employees who could not be absorbed back into the pool of federal employees, Awan said that the government will try to adjust previous staffers in the newly-established court.

Later, talking to The Express Tribune IHC Bar Association president Sajjad Afzal Cheema said the minister had also announced that the lawyers’ chambers in the court building will be completed soon.

He also quoted the law minister as saying that the government will also support lawyers to set up their chambers via the Capital Development Authority.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2010.