ISLAMABAD Two politicians from Balochistan are considering to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the recent appointment of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) chief justice and to seek a judicial review of the July 31 judgment which unseated several judges of superior courts.
'The petitions are ready and will be filed preferably in the Balochistan Registry of the Supreme Court in a couple of days,' former Senator and vice-chairman of the Balochistan Bar Council (BBC) Kamran Murtaza told Dawn.
Although BHC judges would not be the movers of the review petition as they had already resigned, they would be the ultimate beneficiary if the petitions are accepted, Kamran Murtaza, who represented the JUI in Senate, said.
Five judges — CJ Amanullah Yasinzai, Justice Ahmed Khan Lashari, Justice Akhtar Zaman Malghani, Justice Nadir Khan Durrani and Justice Mehta Kalash Nath Kohli — resigned on Aug 4 ostensibly to avoid any questioning by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for having taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) soon after the proclamation of emergency on Nov 3, 2007, by former President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
While declaring the appointment of Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) unconstitutional, the 14-judge Supreme Court bench had decided to refer the cases of judges who had defied the restraining order of a seven-judge bench on Nov 3 to the SJC for action.
Balochistan National Party vice-president Sajid Tarin would be challenging the appointment of Justice Qazi Faez Isa as the BHC Chief Justice and the review petition would be filed either by him or by a representative body of Balochistan, Mr Murtaza said.
The petition seeking review of the July 31 judgment would request the apex court to set aside its short order and restore all unseated judges as they were a day before the announcement of the judgment.
When asked how could an outsider not affected by the judgment would file the review petition, the former senator said that this exactly would be his stand before the apex court as he would be asking why the affected judges who were not party before the apex court were asked to leave.
'And to strengthen our point, we would also be citing the case of former senator Anwar Durrani who, as an ordinary citizen, had challenged the dissolution of the Balochistan assembly by then chief minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali in 1989 and his right to move the court was accepted.
The July 31 decision had virtually suspended the fundamental rights of the citizens in the province by making the high court dysfunctional because no division bench was there to take up constitutional matters or hear human right cases, the senator said.
He said that with the resignation of excellent judges the province was facing a judicial void.
He questioned the competence of the quarters concerned to find equally capable replacements when it had taken them five years to fill the seats of five judges when the strength of court was 10.
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