Vacancies of judges in LHC on rise

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) will be short of nineteen judges after a couple of impending retirement and elevation of judges in the next few weeks, official record shows. The LHC has the sanctioned strength of sixty justices. At present, it has forty-three judges.

The incumbent LHC Chief Justice Mamnon Rashid Sheikh retires on March 18 this year after serving in this position for two months and eighteen days only. The tally will come down to forty-two justices. It will become forty-one if Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi is elevated to the Supreme Court.

At the time of appointment of Justice Mamnon Rashid Sheikh as the LHC chief, two vacancies simultaneously occurred as the then Chief Justice Sardar Shamim and Justice Shahid Mubeen retired on the same day, Dec 31, 2019. The current senior puisine judge, Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan, is going to be appointed the LHC chief justice a few weeks before March 18 as has been the practice in case of such nominations.

To fill up a whopping number of vacancies, the new LHC chief justice may propose the names of at least a dozen lawyers and senior district and sessions judges to be inducted as the justices in view of the growing workload. Normally, the ratio of forty-sixty (district and sessions judges and practicing lawyers respectively) is maintained while taking new judges. It has hardly ever happened that the LHC has had the full strength of judges at any time. However, the LHC chief justices keep stressing that the high court should have more judges considering the pressure of litigation.

A few months before his retirement, Justice Sardar Shamim had recommended the names of new justices including lawyers and district and sessions judges, but the then Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had not agreed with the list and sent it back to the LHC. The matter was not taken up again after that because of fast approaching retirement date of Sardar Shamim.

The judicial commission, now headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, is expected to meet next week to mull over Justice Qasim Khan’s appointment as the LHC chief justice. The matter of elevation of Justice Naqvi, who is the most senior judge after Justice Qasim Khan, to the Supreme Court, may be taken in this meeting or another session.

A vacancy occurred in the apex court when Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa (Punjab) superannuated on Dec 18, 2019. Generally, such post is filled up with the elevation of a high court judge from the same province.

This will be the first time that Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who is facing a reference in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) that he has challenged in the apex court, will be a member of the judicial commission that decides the appointment and elevation of new high court judges.

Under Article 175A of the Constitution, besides Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Isa and Justice Maqbool Baqar will be members of the commission.

After the commission’s green light to judicial nominations, its recommendations are forwarded to the parliamentary committee on appointment of judges for approval. The forum generally takes a couple of weeks to convene to take up the recommendations.

For appointment of high court judges, the commission comprises the apex court chief justice, four senior most judges of the Supreme Court, a former chief justice or ex-judge of the apex court to be nominated by the Chief Justice of Pakistan in consultation with the four member judges for a term of two years; Federal Minister for Law and Justice; Attorney-General for Pakistan; a senior advocate nominated by the Pakistan Bar Council for a term of two years; concerned high court chief justice; the most senior judge of that high court [who, however, will not be part of the commission if it takes up the selection of the chief justice of that high court]; provincial minister for law; an advocate to be named by the concerned provincial bar council for a term of two years.

The commission by majority of its total membership will nominate to the parliamentary committee one person, for each vacancy of judge in a high court.

The parliamentary committee consists of the eight members - four each from the Senate and the National Assembly. Of them, four will be from the treasury benches, two from each House, and four from the opposition benches, two from each House. The nomination of members from the treasury benches will be made by the prime minister and from the opposition by the leader of the opposition.

The committee on receipt of a nomination from the judicial commission may confirm the nominee by majority of its total membership within fourteen days, failing which it will be deemed to have been confirmed, if it, for reasons to be recorded, may not confirm the nomination by three-fourth majority of its total membership within this period. If a nomination is not confirmed by the committee it will forward its decision with reasons so recorded to the commission through the prime minister. If a nomination is not confirmed, the commission will send another one. The committee will send the name of the nominee confirmed by it or deemed to have been confirmed to the prime minister, who will forward the same to the president for appointment.