In violation of seniority principle: LHCBA opposes Justice Ayesha Malik’s elevation to Supreme Court

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) has expressed its reservation over repeated violation of seniority principle for elevation of junior judges of the high courts to the Supreme Court (SC).

“Justice Ayesha A Malik of the Lahore High Court (LHC) enjoys fine reputation as a judge like Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar of the Sindh High Court (SHC), who has been elevated to the apex court, contrary to the seniority principle,” said LHCBA President Maqsood Buttar in a statement issued on Friday.

He said it would be wonderful to see more women in the upper echelons of judiciary – whether as chief justice of a provincial high court or in the Supreme Court. However, the president regretted, had the seniority principle been followed strictly in the past, there would have been a woman chief justice of the LHC and a Supreme Court’s judge back in 2002-3 when Justice Fakharunnisa Khokhar was wrongly and repeatedly bypassed (at least partially on account of her gender).

Even if the seniority principle is followed, Buttar argues, Justice Ayesha Malik would surely and rightfully become chief justice of the LHC, and then judge of the apex court in due course of time. He noted that Justice Malik was on the fourth place in the seniority list, and a number of more senior judges have been overlooked – not only in the LHC but also from other provinces including SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Sheikh and Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah (who have been serving as chief justices for four-and-a-half-years and nearly three years respectively).

Buttar said that once again no reason had been given for overlooking the senior judges. “We are against the principle of unreasoned pick-and-choose and thus we cannot support any out-of-turn appointment made to the Supreme Court by the judicial commission unless it frames consistent objective criteria for making such choices,” the bar’s president added. The LHCBA would support the inclusion of gender, ethnic and religious diversity as one of those objective criteria.

However, until such criterion is framed, we urge the judicial commission to decline any out-of-turn appointment to the Supreme Court, he added.