PAKISTAN:
A constitutional bench (CB) of the Supreme Court will resume on April 14, a series of petitions deposited against the “illegal” transfer of three judges of various high lessons at the High Court of Islamabad (IHC) and the revision of the seniority list of judge IHC following the transfer.
The ministry of Law, on February 1, published a notification for the transfer of judge Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, judge Khadim Hussain Soomro and judge Muhammad aspectively of the High Court of Lahore, the High Court of Sindh and the High Court of Balutchistan – at the IHC.
After this transfer, the IHC has published a new seniority list, classifying Judge Dogar as a senior judge. Five IHC judges – Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Judge Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, judge Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, judge Babar Sattar and judge Saman Rafat Imtiaz – The Butter filed representations against Judge Dogar.
However, the IHC chief judge, Aamer Farooq, rejected these representations. After the elevation of Judge Farooq at the Supreme Court, judge Dogar was also raised as an acting chief of the IHC.
The judges of the IHC, the founder of the PTI, Imran Khan, four associations of different bars and an order of Raja Muscat Riaz Khan have challenged the ordinance of judge Aamer Farooq at the Supreme Court.
According to a list of cause published by the Supreme Court, a CB led by judge Muhammad Ali Mazhar and including judge Naeem Akhtar Afghan, judge Shahid Bilal Hassan, judge Salahuddin Panhwar and judge Shakeel Ahmad will hear the case.
Petitions seek to declare the transfer of judges to the IHC as unconstitutional and to request that the judges transferred to the IHC be prevented from carrying out legal work until a final decision is taken on constitutional petitions.
They also argue that the transferred judges did not take an oath as the JUDGE of the IHC, adding that once the transferred judges have taken oath as the IHC judges, their seniority should be determined from the date on which the oath was administered to them.
