IHC serves notices on 18 judges

The Islamabad High Court on Friday issued notices to 18 judicial officers on a plea against their appointments in the capital’s subordinate judiciary, including two district and sessions judges. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui resumed hearing of a petition filed by Waqas Malik. During the course of hearing, petitioner Waqas Malik apprised the bench that the IHC administration, under the IHC Judicial Services Rules (JSR), must ensure that 50 per cent of the judges appointed to the subordinate judiciary reside in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 48 per cent of the appointments should represent all the four provinces and the remaining two per cent must be from the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata).
He contended that the initial appointments in the subordinate judiciary failed to meet the quota, and that the appointment of judges in both of the sessions divisions of the ICT clearly indicates that the criteria prescribed in JSR 2011 were not met. In the first phase of the appointments, the 50 per cent quota of Islamabad was completely neglected and in the second round of appointments it was reduced, again, below 50 per cent, he added.
Waqas said that new appointments continue to be announced as imbalance of judges is there. At the same time, the subordinate judiciary sustains an imbalance in the allocation of the quota, as the number of judicial officers has not been adjusted.
The absorption of the learned respondents was an infringement of the JSR as well as a violation of the official regulations and procedure, he added. As a result of the judicial officer appointments, a widespread chaos and confusion was generated amongst the lawyers of Islamabad Bar, the petitioner maintained. He requested to ask the IHC administration to revisit the absorptions of judges in the subordinate judiciary of Islamabad, and to reappoint the previous judges to their judicial services. He also requested the IHC to revisit the permanent appointments of the judicial officers, and make appropriate changes to the rotation of judicial officers as soon as possible.