In letter to CJP, Senator Ali Zafar urges deferment of JCP meeting
Pakistan
Senator Zafar proposed postponing Judicial Commission meeting until seniority issue resolved
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Senator Ali Zafar, member of Judicial Commission of Pakistan, has written a letter to Chief Justice Yahya Afridi requesting him to postpone the commission’s meeting.
He said the session be deferred until the issue of seniority is settled in the Islamabad High Court. In the letter, he said due to the recent transfer and posting of the judges, the seniority list of the IHC has changed. These development, he opined, could have serious effects on the justice system.
It was added in the letter that this whole pattern appeared to be planned efforts to affect the pleas of Bushra Bibi and Imran khan.
Senator Zafar proposed that postponing the Judicial Commission meeting until the seniority issue is resolved would be appropriate. Alternatively, if the meeting is unavoidable, the recently transferred judges should not be considered, he wrote.
A day earlier, four judges of the apex court have written a letter to the chief justice, demanding the postponement of the Judicial Commission meeting scheduled for February 10.
They stated that the appointment of new judges should be halted until the 26th Constitutional Amendment case is decided.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Ayesha Malik, and Justice Athar Minallah authored the letter.
In the letter, the judges urged that at the very least, appointments should be delayed until the constitutional bench decides on the request for a full court. They also stated that new judicial appointments should be put on hold until the seniority of Islamabad High Court judges is determined.
The letter highlighted that the constitutional bench might call for a full court in the 26th Amendment case, which could create a dispute over which judges would constitute the full court.
The judges pointed out that three judges were transferred to the Islamabad High Court, and according to the Constitution, they were required to take a fresh oath.
The letter argued that without taking the oath, the status of these judges remains questionable. Despite this, the seniority list of Islamabad High Court judges has already been altered.
The judges warned that bringing in new judges under the current circumstances would create an impression of "court packing." They questioned why the judiciary was being put in this situation.
The judges directly asked the chief justice whose agenda and interests were being served by placing the court in this situation.
