CB to take up judges’ transfer case today

A constitutional bench (CB) of the apex court is going to take up today a slew of petitions filed against “illegal” transfer of three judges from various high courts to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the revision of the IHC judges seniority list in the wake of the transfer.

The Ministry of Law on February 1 issued a notification for the transfer of Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro and Justice Muhammad Asif — respectively from the Lahore High Court, the Sindh High Court and the Balochistan High Court—to the IHC.

Following this transfer, the IHC issued a new seniority list, ranking Justice Dogar as the senior puisne judge. Five IHC judges — Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz — later filed representations against Justice Dogar.

However, the then IHC chief justice, Aamer Farooq rejected these representations. After elevation of Justice Farooq to the Supreme Court, Justice Dogar was also elevated as the IHC acting chief justice.

The IHC judges, PTI founder Imran Khan, four different bar associations and a Raja Muscat Riaz Khan challenged Justice Aamer Farooq’s order in the Supreme Court.

According to a cause list issued by the Supreme Court, a CB led by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Shakeel Ahmad will hear the case.

The petitions seek to declare the transfer of judges to the IHC as unconstitutional and request that the judges transferred to the IHC be restrained from performing judicial work until a final decision is made on the constitutional petitions.

They also argue that the transferred judges did not take oath as IHC judges, adding that once the transferred judges take their oath as judges of the IHC, their seniority would need to be determined from the date on which the oath was administered to them.

A week after the transfer, four SC judges — Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Athar Minallah — also endorsed the stance taken by five IHC judges in a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi

Later talking to court reporters on February 11, CJ Afridi had said he principally agreed with the SC judges on seniority of IHC judges. The CJ said he believed that there is a judicial forum — the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) — to decide about the seniority issue of the IHC judge.

Justice Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar are also the members of the JCP.

During the JCP meeting on February 10, two members—Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) member Akhtar Hussain also raised concerns about the new seniority list of IHC judges. Both disagreed with the proposal for elevation of Justice Aamer Farooq to the SC, sources said.