THE president has appointed six additional judges to the Peshawar High Court for a period of one year and the judges are expected to take oath in the next few days. With the appointment of these six additional judges the strength of the serving judges in the court has enhanced to 15 while the sanctioned strength is 20.

Interestingly, only three of the 15 judges are confirmed whereas the rest of 12 are additional judges. The confirmed judges are: Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan.

The six newly-appointed judges are: Khalid Mehmood, Fazal-e-Haq Abbasi, Nasir Hussain Khan, Waqar Ahmad Seth, Qaiser Rashid and Malik Azmatullah. All of them belong to the bar and were practicing lawyers.

The names of these judges were recommended by the Judicial Commission headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on July 6, 2011. The Parliamentary Committee for appointment of judges also gave approval to these names following which the notification regarding their appointment was issued.

Among these judges Mr Qaiser Rashid is a known name as he spearheaded the lawyers’ movement in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Hailing from Malakand Division, Mr Rashid is well-versed in banking and commercial cases and is a member of Pakistan Bar Council. He had also served as additional advocate general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. During the lawyers’ movement he continued to motivate his colleagues to continue the boycott of judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.

Mr Waqar Ahmad Seth is one of the leading lawyers in cases pertaining to services and labour. Known for keeping low profile, Mr Seth is well respected in the legal fraternity. Another appointed judge, Khalid Mehmood, belongs to Mardan and had also remained an active member of the lawyers’ movement. At that time he was the vice-chairman of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council.

The rests of judges hail from Hazara Division. Fazal-e-Haq Abbasi is from Abbottabad and is a member of the provincial bar council.

He is also a member of the Judicial Commission representing the bar council. Similarly, Nasir Hussain belongs to Mansehra and is considered an expert in civil law. Malik Azmatullah is from Haripur. He is also considered expert in dealing with both civil and criminal cases.

Presently, out of the 15 judges only two are from the subordinate judiciary and the other are from the bar. These two judges are Justice Attaullah Khan and Justice Miftauddin Khan.

Prior to the Eighteenth Amendment, an additional judge of the high court was appointed by the president in the manner provided for appointment of a permanent judge of the high court under Article 193 of the Constitution. The president appointed a judge of the high court after consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the governor of the concerned province and the chief justice of the high court.

Interestingly, ever since the Judicial Commission started functioning, so far it had confirmed services of only a single additional judge of the Peshawar High Court. Justice (retd) Abdul Aziz Kundi was notified as confirmed judge of the high court in Dec last, only a week before his retirement. In Jan last, the Judicial Commission had relieved five of the additional judges and extended services of only two judges -- Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi. Similarly, prior to that the commission had extended services of five judges and relieved two judges.

Presently, the mechanism given for appointment of judges has been drawing criticism from different quarters. President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jahangir while expressing her reservations on such appointments stated recently that through a judgment the Supreme Court had almost done away with the role of the Parliamentary Committee. During her visit to Peshawar last week she stated that the role of Parliamentary Committee had been turned into that of a post office.

Without naming any of the recently appointed judges, Ms Jahangir claimed that one of them had never paid the income tax whereas another one had paid only Rs2,000 income tax. A member of Pakistan Bar Council, Yaseen Azad, had also alleged that certain appointments were based on favouritism.

Even when the Judicial Commission had relieved five additional judges of the high court in Jan last, that decision had drawn flak from the legal circles in Peshawar.

For doing away with these impressions, it is vital for the Judicial Commission to dispel the impression that the Supreme Court chief justice is calling the shots whereas other members have only been acting like silent spectators.