LAHORE – The Lahore High Court, whose approved strength of judges is 60, will face shortage of 28 judges after Judicial Commission (JC) recommended removal of 10 out of 34 additional (adhoc) judges questioning their judicial skills.
Sources told Pakistan Today that judicial commission termed the appointments of the expelled additional judges as based on political consideration or favoritism. “The respective judges could not show good performance at their judicial work and the final fate of judges will be decided by a parliamentary committee on appointment of judges. The parliamentary committee is the last hope for the 10 adhoc judges recommended for expulsion,” sources said.
The additional judges recommended for expulsion include Justice Mansoor Akbar Kokab, Justice Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari, Justice Tariq Javed, Justice Muhammad Naseem Akhtar Khan, Justice Muhammad Anwar Bhaur, Justice Mian Shahid Iqbal, Justice Shaukat Umar Pirzada, Justice Syed Akhlaq Ahmad, Justice Waqar Hassan Mir and Justice Hassan Raza Pasha.
Justice Kokab, Justice Ansari and Justice Javed have already been given an additional year through a judge by the Supreme Court as their one-year tenure as additional judge lapsed on Sept 15, 2010. While the one-year tenure of the remaining additional judges (appointed on Feb 19, 2010) was set to lapse in February 2011.
After elevation of Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry to the slot of Lahore High Court Chief Justice, if it goes through there shall be a major shakeup in the judiciary whereby 10 adhoc judges shall be removed despite a judge shortage in the court as they were not pulling the weight in the judicial work and their capabilities and judicial skills were being questioned by colleague judges and lawyers at the court.
The judicial commission of Pakistan in taking a bold step to deny confirmation to 10 additional (adhoc) judges of Lahore High Court (LHC) has proved it is not quantity but quality that matters on questions of the appointment judges in superior judiciary. The judicial commission shall now face the challenges to choose the right individuals for appointment as judges from amongst lawyers.
The induction of the wrong people on “references’ leads to the creation of such a situation. It is hoped that in future judges will not sacked after one year as it is also bad for the judges who go home after one year and it spoils their life and career also in addition becoming an insulting thing for the family of such judges.
In view of shortage of judges at LHC as many as 34 additional judges were appointed in 2009 and 2010 for one year subject to confirmation. Twenty-two (22) additional judges were appointed on Feb 19, 2010 and twelve (12) judges on Sep 15 2009. None of the 34 judges could get confirmation in the meeting. But seeing the difference in performance 24 judges were given one year extension to improve performance till next year while 10 expelled.
Court officials said, most of the adhoc judges were allegedly unable to perform judicial work and some could not even dictate orders and judgments in court and it seemed that will not be good judges as they perhaps lacked the aptitude or skills to run court business.
In the legal community it is talk of the town that whatever the case had been in the past regarding the appointment of judges of the superior judiciary but now it seems that fair play, merit, ability, potential, and aptitude of judges will be judges before confirming them as “Justice”. LHC is now waiting for good judges as it has huge backlog of the cases and should be provided 60 judges as per its approved strength.
Only 32 judges are working at LHC and people wait for years for the turn of their cases due to shortage of judges and heaps of old cases in the pipeline.
The Judicial Commission has sent a strong message to 24 remaining adhoc judges whose fate will be decided next year on the basis of their performance as judges and if any one out of them failed to prove his capabilities in performing judicial work and he may be similarly recommended for removal.
