LAHORE – The news of the termination of four more additional judges has unsettled all additional judges at the Lahore High Court, Pakistan Today has learnt. With four of their colleagues sacked, none of the 20 adhoc LHC judges on duty are certain of their future in the higher judiciary. Sources told Pakistan Today that allegations were that the dismissed additional judges were appointed on political consideration during the days of of former LHC chief justice Khawaja Sharif.
The Parliamentary Committee’s decision has left only 28 judges at the LHC whose approved strength for judges is 60. Among these only four senior judges are functional including LHC CJ Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry. Four seniors are non-functional being PCO judges while the 20 additional judges waiting for confirmation face an uncertain fate like the four expelled on Wednesday.
Court officials said there are rumours that ‘not four but more’ judges had been terminated by the parliamentary committee (PC) on judicial appointments by two-third majority vote and this had led to panic on the court premises. Sources said gossip and uncertainty in judicial circles was high on the fate of other adhoc judges who had received one year extensions by JC.
Officials said doubts were high on the wisdom of parliamentary committee and the judicial commission which had slashed the number of Lahore High Court judges without appointing replacements. Sources said the LHC backlog was high and the court was hearing appeal and civil case filed in 2004 these days and cases filed in later years were in the pipeline and faced a likely four year delay.
“The LHC is four years behind in disposing of huge backlog of the case due to shortage of judges or burden of cases” an official confirmed. Earlier, the Judicial Commission (JC) headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan terminated 10 adhoc LHC judges by refusing to give confirmation or extension while other judges were given extension for one year by the judicial commission.
The recommendations of JC for extension to 24 judges were sent to parliamentary committee (PC) for decision but the PC in its Wednesday meeting sacked four more judges by refusing extension, sources said. According to court sources, the adhoc judges sacked by PC include Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Naqvi, Justice Mohammad Farrukh Irfan Khan, Justice Mohammad Yarwar Ali Khan, and Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh.
The ten adhoc LHC judges who were sacked earlier in January by judicial commission included Justice Mansoor Akbar Kokab, Justice Abdur Rehman Ansari, Justice Tariq Javed, Justice Naseem Akhtar Khan, Justice Muhammad Anwar Bahor, Justice Mian Shahid Iqbal, Justice Shaukat Omar Pirzada, Justice Ikhlaq Ahmed, Justice Waqar Hassan Mir and Justice Hassan Raza Pasha.
