ISLAMABAD:Following the passage of the 26th Constitutional Amendment, adhocism appears to be growing across the superior judiciary.
Despite the lapse of four months, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) has yet to convene a meeting to appoint permanent chief justices for the Sindh High Court, Peshawar High Court and Islamabad High Court.
The Balochistan High Court also remained without a permanent chief justice for more than three months. On May 19, the JCP approved the appointment of Justice Muhammad Ejaz Swati as BHC chief justice, but only for a period of two weeks. He retired on June 5.
Justice Rozi Khan Barech, who ranked second in the BHC’s seniority list, has now been appointed acting chief justice.
Similarly, Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar has been serving as acting chief justice of the Islamabad High Court for the past four months. His seniority is currently under challenge in the Supreme Court. While the litigation may explain the delay in appointing a permanent IHC chief justice, no clear reason exists for the prolonged delay in appointments for the other three high courts.
Since the passage of the 18th Amendment, the JCP has not previously delayed the process of appointing permanent chief justices for the high courts.
Under the new constitutional arrangement, the executive holds a dominant role in the appointment of judges to the superior judiciary. However, senior judges, particularly the Chief Justice of Pakistan, have made no serious effort to restore balance in the appointments process.
During the tenure of the current CJP, Justice Yahya Afridi, approximately 50 judges have been appointed to the superior courts, with the executive playing a key role in nominating many of them. No judge can now become a permanent chief justice without the executive’s support.
The government has thus succeeded in maintaining “like-minded” acting chief justices in key high courts.
With the backing of former CJP Qazi Faez Isa, the government previously managed to elevate Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan from the Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court, reportedly because he was not their preferred choice to lead the LHC.
At present, the executive is reportedly reluctant to elevate incumbent LHC CJ Alia Neelum, as the Punjab government is said to be comfortable with the current provincial judiciary.
