LAHORE: A petition was moved in the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry on Tuesday challenging the nominations of former law minister Dr Khalid Ranjha and Justice (retd) Ali Hussain Qazilbash as members of the Judicial Commission.
The petition, filed by Barrister Zafarullah, pleaded that Justice (r) Qazilbash was not fit to perform any job as he was about 85-year-old, adding that his nomination was also in violation of the verdict in the Al Jihad Trust case.
The Supreme Court had nominated Justice (r) Qazilbash, a former judge of the Supreme Court, whereas PML-Q Senator Khalid Ranjha was nominated by the Pakistan Bar Council as its representative in the commission.
Barrister Zafarullah pleaded that the PBC had been authorised under Article 175A to nominate an advocate to be a part of the judicial commission but the vacancy should be filled by some senior advocate of the Supreme Court outside the PBC as the role of PBC was like a judge and not to decide in its own favour.
He contended that the PBC’s nomination of its members in the judicial commission was against the spirit of the article and the act itself was unconstitutional. He submitted that under Article 175A, provincial bar councils were also authorised to nominate a senior advocate as a member of the judicial commission for the High Court and these were equally required not to appoint or nominate any sitting member of these provincial bar councils.
Referring to appointment of adhoc judges according to article 182 of the constitution, the petitioner contended that the retired judge must be recently retired. The petitioner prayed to the court to review the appointment of Justice (r) Qazilbash and members of bar councils.
