KARACHI: Lawyers on Monday boycotted the legal proceedings across the city in protest over nomination of junior judges of high courts to the Supreme Court.

A complete strike was observed at the Sindh High Court, the City Courts, Malir District Courts as well as the special courts and tribunals.

The lawyers did not turn up to plead their cases fixed for the day at any of the courts, which led to the adjournment of hundreds of the cases both at the superior and subordinate courts. This resulted in difficulties for a large number of the litigants.

Besides, prison authorities did not bring undertrial prisoners from their barracks for their production in courts in the wake the protest call given by the lawyers.

However, the judges remained present in their chambers in order to hear the cases involving urgency.

A joint general body meeting of the members of the representatives of the Sindh Bar Council (SBC), the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) and Karachi Bar Association (KBA) was held at the City Courts.

The speakers strongly criticised the move of proposed elevation of the junior judges from the high courts to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

They demanded that the principal of the seniority must be taken into consideration in the process of the elevation of the judges to the top court and the same be carried out in a proper way.

SBC vice chairman Zulfiqar Jalbani strongly reacted to the elevations of two junior judges from the Sindh High Court and Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP).

Mr Jalbani told Dawn that the JCP on Monday approved elevation of the SHC’s Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi and LHC’s Justice Shahid Waheed to the apex court “in violation of the principal of senior set in the Al-Jehad Trust case by the Supreme Court itself”.

“Tomorrow a conference call of the members of the all the five provincial bar councils has been summoned, where the future course of action will be decided and announced,” added Mr Jalbani.

He further said that the SBC rejected these elevations, demanding that first the rules of the JCP be framed under which the procedures of the elevation of judges be defined and exercised.

The lawyers’ leaders warned that in case their demand for considering the principle of seniority was not taken into consideration they might widen the scope of their protest.

HYDERABAD: A general body meeting organised by Democratic Lawyers Forum at High Court Bar Association’s Hyderabad office on Monday condemned elevation of junior judges to Supreme Court.

The forum’s convener Sattar Sarki, who chaired the meeting, said that when the junior judges were being elevated to the apex court the names of the Sindh candidates recommended for elevation a month back had been rejected.

But now the same names were being considered, he said and wondered how the earlier rejected judges (Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shafi Siddiqui) had suddenly became so ‘competent’ as to be considered for elevation to SC. The move would affect entire judicial system of the country, he said.

DLF secretary Abdul Hakeem Chandio said that no judge out of the 17 judges of the SC was Sindhi.

HCBA president Ghulamullah Chang asked what credentials Sindh High Court’s chief justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh lacked that his name was not being recommended for SC.

Khuda Bux Leghari and Mohammad Sachal Awan said that a movement should be launched in this regard.

The meeting adopted a resolution, urging Pakistan Bar Council, Sindh Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar Association to declare that the elevation of junior judges was unconstitutional as it would create a sense of deprivation among Sindhis who would consider themselves second rated citizens.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2022