ISLAMABAD:
Senior lawyer Muneer A Malik will appear before the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench (CB), led by Justice Aminuddin Khan, on September 29 to plead the case of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri against his suspension through a judicial order.
Previously, Malik had appeared on behalf of five IHC judges, who challenged the transfer of judges from three different high courts to the IHC. However, the CB by 3-2 majority endorsed the transfers.
Interestingly, two judges, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazahar and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, who endorsed the transfers, are part of this bench as well.
Four judges who are part of this CB have already endorsed trials of civilians in military courts.
Lawyers believe that Justice Jahangiri’s case is very strong to get relief but keeping in view the recent judgments of four members, anything can be expected.
One section of lawyers says that it seems things are going against Justice Jahangiri as per a plan. First, he was suspended through judicial order without issuance of notice. Second, early hearing application was moved in Sindh High Court for vacating the stay in his law degree case, which was cancelled by the Karachi University.
After one week of filing, the CB committee decided to fix his case against suspension on September 29. Questions are also being raised on the composition of the benches by CB committee.
Lawyers point out that under the 26th Amendment there should be representation from each province in constitutional benches. Yet no judge belonging to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has been included in the bench hearing Justice Jahangiri’s case, even though 15 judges have been nominated for constitutional benches. Interestingly, Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim has not yet been included in any constitutional bench.
Lawyers are urging the committee responsible for bench formation to give equal opportunity to all judges to hear important cases. Earlier, criticism had also been directed at chief justices for including “like-minded” judges in benches hearing high-profile cases.
Muneer A Malik already represented for chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Qazi Faez Isa. Now the situation has changed and the executive has dominancy on the judiciary.