IHC Bar challenges judges seniority list in Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court Bar has moved the Supreme Court of Pakistan, challenging the judges’ seniority list, ARY News reported on Saturday.

President IHC Bar Riasat Ali Azad has filed the petition under Article 184(3). “The President is not enjoying unlimited powers to transfer judges’ under Article 200 clause (i),” according to the petition.

Petitioner has also argued that the judges could not be transferred from one high court to other without public interest.

Earlier, five judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) have also challenged the seniority list of judges in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

A 49-page petition, filed under Article 184(3), stated that the President’s powers to transfer judges are not absolute and should be conditional upon the Judicial Commission’s approval.

The petition, filed through lawyers Munir A. Malik and Barrister Salahuddin, named the federal government, transferred judges, and high courts as respondents. It also seeks a stay order against the transferred judges, including Justice Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar, who recently took oath as the acting chief justice of the IHC.

The petitioners, including Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Rafaqat Imtiaz, and Justice Saman Rafat, have raised 13 pleas before the court. They contended that judges cannot be transferred from one high court to another without public interest.

This move comes after IHC judges wrote a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi, expressing concerns over the appointment of the chief justice of the IHC. They had requested that the chief justice be appointed from among the three senior judges of the court itself.