Lawyers sit-in against judges appointments after retirement on Sept 9

MULTAN: The countrywide lawyers and their professional bodies at a convention in Multan have announced observing sit-in at the Parliament House on September 9 against judges appointments at lucrative posts after their retirement and it would continue till the demands are met.

The Multan High Court Bar Association organised the convention at the Lahore High Court Multan Bench bar hall chaired by MHCBA President Syed Riazul Hassan Gillani Thursday. The representatives and office- bearers of the bar associations from Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and representatives from Pakistan Bar Council attended the lawyers convention.

Senior lawyers including ex-president SCBA Hamid Khan, Islamabad High Court Bar Association President Salahuddin Zuberi, Syed Amjad Shah, Pakistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Fahim Wali, Balochistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Qasim Gamayzai, PBC member Syed Ahmed Shah, PBC member Hasssan Raza Pasha and others spoke on the occasion. The lawyers convention endorsed Islamabad sit-in call on September 9 and announced fully participating in the sit-in.

MHCBA President Syed Riazul Hassan Gillani presented resolutions passed in the convention unanimously while MHCBA General Secretary Arshad Maitla conducted the convention.

The resolutions endorsed in the convention said being the integral part of the judicial system, the bar councils as well as bar associations are obligated to go all out for the betterment of the system and raising voice against foul play by any stakeholder.

The convention demanded that legislature and judiciary introduce an explicit and transparent procedure and criterion in judicial system for the elevation in superior judiciary and to curb the tendency of keeping a number of posts of the judges of high courts vacant for long time in order to wait for the eligibility of the ‘loved ones’. The convention opposed the decision of the Supreme Court of the practice of post- retirement appointment of the judges. Lawyers feared it would also shatter the integrity of judges, which must be prevented.