ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted time to Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir to seek instructions from the quarters concerned over the appointment issue of Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges and apprise it on November 22 with relevant documents if he wanted to.

A four-member bench headed by Justice Khilji Arif Hussain took up a constitutional plea moved by Nadeem Ahmed advocate filed through Akram Shaikh.

At the outset of proceedings, the bench posed questions over maintainability of the plea under article 184 (3) of the constitution, related to public interest issue.

Akram Shaikh, counsel for the petitioner, contended that after passage of 18th and 19th Amendments, the president had no authority to stop notifications recommended by the judicial commission and the parliamentary committee on appointment of judges.

Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa questioned whether the Supreme Court was being asked to usurp the president's role. “How can we do it and issue a directive for issuance of notification?” he questioned.

The attorney general strongly objected on maintainability of the plea by saying that it appeared to be a contrived plea with the blessings of some high judicial personalities.

He said that article 184 (3) required that a person seeking relief under the same provision should come up with clean hands.

Responding to a bench's question, however, he said that names of IHC judges were recommended by the judicial commission.

He maintained that he had opposed the constitution of a commission.

Responding to another question, he said that the constitution was the only impediment in issuance of the notification.

He said that he was very much clear about the constitutional provisions and the state functionaries, including the president, could disregard any unconstitutional directive given by the Supreme Court.

Justice Khosa observed that in 1987, the court had decided that people could not ignore decisions of the lawful courts, however, they had rights to avail remedies from the appropriate forum.

The AG also expressed his strong reservation over conduct of the registrar of the Supreme Court in the instant matter.

The bench told him that he was also a secretary to the judicial commission.

Further hearing was adjourned to November 22.

The petitioner had moved the apex court over the issue of confirmation of the chief justice of IHC and two other judges of the same court.

IHC Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman and Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui were confirmed on their respective positions by the judicial commission but their notifications had not been issued yet.