Advocate Jafferii says, “Gone is any small semblance of judicial order”, while Barrister Rahim says IHC has again “burnished its reputation for judicial independence.”
Members of the legal fraternity on Friday expressed solidarity with the five Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges — Justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Babar Sattar, Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri, Saman Raffat Imtiaz and Ejaz Ishaq — who submitted separate petitions at the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday against several issues concerning their court; from the composition of benches to rosters to case transfers.
The petitions, available with Dawn.com, named the IHC, IHC Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and the Federation of Pakistan as respondents and have been filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.
Article 184(3) sets out the SC’s original jurisdiction and enables it to assume jurisdiction in matters involving a question of “public importance” with reference to the “enforcement of any of the fundamental rights” of Pakistan’s citizens.
In their petitions, the judges moved the SC to declare that administrative powers could not be “deployed to undermine or trump the judicial powers” of the high court judges.
They further asked the apex court to declare that a chief justice of the high court was “not authorised to constitute benches or transfer cases” once a high court bench had been assigned a case.
Today’s development has once again highlighted deep fissures within the IHC, which gained prominence when Justice Dogar was appointed as the high court’s chief justice.
The fissures in the high court can be traced back to March last year, when in a startling letter written to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) members, the five IHC judges, along with Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir had accused the country’s intelligence apparatus of interference in judicial affairs, including attempts to pressure judges through abduction and torture of their relatives and secret surveillance inside their homes.
Barrister Rida Hosain said on X that the petition was an act of “Independent judges fighting back”.
“Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi gave his consent for the transfer of judges, including (IHC Chief Justice) Dogar, to the IHC and ‘welcomed’ the transfer,” Hosain said.
“Meanwhile, Chief Justice Dogar’s milestones include suspending and obstructing judges from their judicial duties,” she added.
Advocate Abdul Moiz Jafferii, speaking to Dawn.com on the development, said: “The toying with the constitutional order with the 26th amendment and the later transfer appointment of a judge from Lahore into the Islamabad High Court, which we were asked to rejoice, is bearing fruit.”
“Gone is any small semblance of judicial order”
“Gone is any small semblance of judicial order. This could all have been prevented from happening if the Supreme Court and our senior lords had united when the amendment was being passed in the dead of night,” Jafferii said.
“It could have been corrected if the Supreme Court had intervened in a timely manner once the amendment was challenged,” he added.
“The desire is to denude the will of the people — and unless our Supreme Court and its constitutional benches see their own powerless futures in the faces of these five brave judges — we will get more of the same going forward,” the advocate added.
Barrister Asad Rahim Khan told Dawn.com: “At a time of such widespread regression for the legal system, the Islamabad High Court has again burnished its reputation for judicial independence.”
“The petitions of the five judges require immediate resolution by the Supreme Court, given just how much its recent verdicts have whittled down the judiciary’s autonomy,” he added.
Taking to X, Advocate Rabbiya Bajwa, former vice president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, said, “The brave and principled judges of the Islamabad High Court are standing firm against all odds.
“We are not disappointed, as they represent the true face of the judiciary we are striving for in Pakistan. Long live the resistance.”
Collage of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiani, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Saman Rafat and Justice Ejaz Ishaq Khan. — Supreme Court Website