PESHAWAR: Members of Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) have nominated 31 candidates including three judicial officers for consideration in the ongoing process of appointing additional judges to Peshawar High Court.

A meeting of the JCP is scheduled for Dec 21 wherein the appointment of judges to Peshawar High Court is also on the agenda.

Under Article 175-A of the Constitution, any member of the JCP may give nominations in the commission for appointment against each anticipated or actual vacancy in the superior courts.

According to an official communication of the JCP’s secretariat with its members, the nominations made by the chief justice of PHC include three district and sessions judges (DSJs) and six lawyers.

PHC chief justice’s nominees include three district and sessions judges and six lawyers

The DSJs are: Kaleem Arshad Khan, Ms Farah Jamshed and Inamullah Khan.

Hailing from Dera Ismail Khan, Kaleem Arshad Khan was appointed as additional district judge in 2005 and his retirement is due in Nov 2027.

Ms Jamshed and Mr Inamullah Khan hail from Mansehra and Bannu, respectively and their retirements are due in Jan 2030 and Sept 2027, respectively. Both of them had joined the judicial service in 1994 as civil judges.

The lawyers nominated by the chief justice are: Barrister Syed Mudasser Amir, Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah, Junaid Anwar, Aurangzeb, Salahuddin and Sadiq Ali, who is presently the vice chairman of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council.

The lawyers nominated by Akhtar Hussain, who is nominee of the Pakistan Bar Council in the JCP, include a former president of PHC Bar Association Tariq Afridi and Amir Javed, who is a former KP advocate general and an ex-additional attorney general.

Similarly, Munir Hussain Laghmani, who is nominee of KPBC in the commission, has nominated three lawyers including Mohammad Ali Khan, Mohammad Rafique and Bakht Jamal Khan.

Federal law minister Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar has nominated a former president of PHCBA, Mian Abdul Fayaz, for appointment as a high court judge.

The KP law minister has given names of eight nominees mostly belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. These nominees include: KP advocate general Shah Faisal Uthmankhel, Alam Khan Adenzai, Ghulam Mohammad Sappal, Syed Sikander Hayat Shah, Mohammad Inam Khan Yousafzai, Kausar Ali Shah, Abdur Rauf Khan Afridi and Mohammad Bashar Naveed.

MNA Sheikh Aftab Ahmad has named advocate Sardar Ali Raza as his nominee. He has also been nominated by Senator Farooq H Naek. Mr Raza is a senior lawyer and son of former chief election commissioner and retired senior judge of the Supreme Court Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan.

Five other names given by Senator Farooq Naek are: Syed Shakil Ahmad Gillani, Nasir Mehmood, Bilal Ahmad Durrani (former member of KPBC), executive member of SC Bar Association and a former vice president of PHCBA Ms Ayesha Malik, and ex-assistant attorney general Mansoor Tariq.

PTI’s chairman Barrister Gohar Ali, who is also member of the commission, has nominated a female advocate of the Supreme Court, Ms Raheela Bibi.

Similarly, another member Ms Roshan Khursheed Barucha has also given only a single name of a former additional advocate general, Atif Ali Khan.

PHC is presently having 13 judges, including its Chief Justice Ihstiaq Ibrahim. Of these 13 judges, only two are from the judicial service.

Following the elevation of the then PHC chief justice, Musarrat Hilali, to the Supreme Court, PHC is now without a female judge.

In Sept 2024, a notification was issued by the federal law ministry pronouncing that the president of Pakistan had increased the number of PHC judges to 30 from the existing 20.

Following the enactment of the Constitution (Twenty-sixth) Amendment Act, the composition of the JCP are: chief justice of Pakistan as its chairperson, three most senior judges of the Supreme Court, most senior judge of the constitutional benches, federal minister for law and justice, attorney general for Pakistan, a senior advocate nominated by PBC, two members each from Senate and the National Assembly, a woman or non-Muslim to be nominated by the NA speaker.

Moreover, for appointment of a judge of a high court the JCP shall also include as member the chief justice of the relevant high court, head of the constitutional benches of the high court, provincial law minister and a senior lawyer nominated by the bar council concerned. Senior puisne judge of a high court will be member of the commission in case the provision related to constitutional benches of a high court had not come into force.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024