President Asif Ali Zardari inks presidential reference in judges appointment case

President Asif Ali Zardari has inked a presidential reference seeking guideline from the Supreme Court over the procedure of the appointment of the judges.

According to Law Minister Farooq H. Naek, the president asked for the advice from the apex court under the Article 186 of the constitution. The reference would be filed tomorrow in Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The law minister said that the reference contained 13 questions related to the appointment of judges in the superior judiciary with specific reference to the Islamabad High Court. The reference asked for guidance over the role of judicial commission, parliamentary committee and the seniority of the judges, he said.

It is to be mentioned here that a four-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Khilji Arif granted a time of two weeks on November 23, 2012 as sought by Attorney General Irfan Qadir to file a presidential reference in the apex court.

The time granted by the apex court will expire on December 7, 2012. The Judicial Commission nominated appointment/extension of two additional judges of the High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Noor ul Haq N Qureshi and the nomination was approved by the Parliamentary Committee (PC) under Article 175A inserted in the Constitution under the 18th and 19th Amendments.

The term of both as additional judges was expired on November 20 as the notification was not issued due to some questions raised on the process of recommendations by the Commission with an observation to reconsider the nominations because the commission which had finalized the names had not been constituted properly.

On the hearing of the case, AG Irfan Qadir informed the court that the Law Minister instructed him that a presidential reference would be filed to get SC advice regarding appointment of Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi besides the non-confirmation of Justice Azim Afridi as IHC judge.

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Posted by Web Desk on Dec 7 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.