Islamabad:
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court postponed until Thursday (today) the hearing of the case of transfer of judge of the High Court of Islamabad (IHC).
A constitutional bench of five members of the Supreme Court, led by judge Muhammad Ali Mazhar, chaired the hearing.
During the procedure, the defender General of Punjab advanced his arguments, declaring that Western Pakistan had been made a single unit in 1955 by the general ordinance of the Governor of Pakistan.
Consequently, all high court level courts have been consolidated in one, and a seniority list was compiled according to the dates of appointment of the judges.
However, Judge Naeem Akhtar Afghan pointed out that the situation in this case was different, because no training or judicial dissolution had taken place in connection with the transfer of judges to the IHC.
In response, the defender General said that his point was only to illustrate that the service and transfers of the judges had historically been accepted.
The Afghan judge observed that the central question in the case is whether the transfer of the judge must be considered as permanent or temporary under article 200 of the Constitution.
He also asked why a judge ranked 15th on the seniority list was transferred while 14 judges senioed to ignore him.
