ISLAMABAD – Five judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has filed a petition in Supreme Court over seniority issue.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiani, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Tariq Jahangiri, Justice Saman Rifat, and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq have filed the petition under Article 184(3) of Constitution through Munir A. Malik and Barrister Salahuddin.
The petitioners argued that the president does not have unlimited powers under Article 200(1) to transfer judges. Judges cannot be transferred from one high court to another without public interest.
The petition further stated that Article 200 pertains only to temporary transfers, adding that the transfer notification, the seniority list, and the decision issued on the representation violated Article 200(1).
It added that judges’ transfers can only be temporary without affecting the seniority list. The petitioners claimed that the recent transfer of Justice Sarfraz Dogar, Justice Khalid Soomro and Justice Mohammad Asif were not made for reasons other than the public interest.
The transfer of judges to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) is against Article 175-A.
The petition asked the top court to annul the current seniority list of the high court as it is contrary to Article 194 and the Third Schedule of the Constitution.
It pleaded the apex court to stop Justice Sarfraz Dogar from working as acting chief justice of the IHC. Similarly, Justice Khalid Soomro and Justice Mohammad Asif should also be stopped from judicial work.
The petition further argued that the failure of the transferred judges to take a new oath is a violation of the Constitution. The seniority of any judge begins at the high court where they took their oath. A judge who has only spent two weeks at the high court was made acting chief Justice and given full administrative powers.
The constitutional petition has named the President of Pakistan, the Federation, the Judicial Commission, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, as well as the Registrars of the Sindh, Lahore, and Balochistan High Courts, the Registrar of the Islamabad High Court, Justice Sarfraz Dogar, Justice Khalid Soomro, and Justice Mohammad Asif as parties.
