Supreme Court orders government to appoint judges in IHC

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday ordered the government to issue the notification of Justice Shaukat Siddiqui and Justice Noorul Haq’s appointment in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

A five-member larger bench of the apex court headed by Justice Khilji Arif Hussain announced the short judgment on a constitutional petition filed by Nadim Ahmed Advocate against the non-issuance of notification of judges’ appointment in the IHC.

The bench had reserved the verdict on December 7 after Barrister Akram Sheikh, counsel for a petitioner Advocate Ahmed in the case, completed his arguments. The bench accepted Nadeem’s application for hearing and ordered the government to appoint Justice Shaukat Siddiqui as permanent judge while Noorul Haq as additional judge in the IHC.

The ruling moreover stated that both judges would be considered appointed since Nov 20, 2012. The ruling also ordered the government to give six months extension to Justice Haq.

The president had also filed a reference regarding the appointment of judges in higher judiciary that was not discussed in the judgment.

Through the reference, the president desired to seek the opinion on the questions of law, considered by him to be of public importance, in respect of appointment of the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts in view of the 18th and 19th Constitutional Amendments.

The 31-page reference raised 13 questions that were related to the role of judicial commission and a bipartisan parliamentary committee in the appointment of judges.

The two judges, Justice Siddiqui and Justice Qureshi, had earlier been nominated by the Judicial Commission (JC) and approved by the Parliamentary Committee (PC) under Article 175A inserted in the Constitution under the 18^th and 19^th Amendments.

Their terms expired on Nov 20 after the President House returned the recommendations to the JC with an observation to reconsider the nominations because the commission which had finalised the names had not been constituted properly.

The controversy was over the composition of the 11-member JC in which Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi sat in place of senior judge Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan who was in Saudi Arabia for Haj when the commission had met.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Dec 21 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.