LAHORE, March 25: The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notices to the federal and Punjab governments for a reply on objections to a writ petition against promotion of five presiding officers of anti-terrorism courts as high court judges.

Justice Pervez Ahmad, Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar Husain, Justice Farrukh Lateef, Justice Syed Sakhi Husain Bokhari and Justice Rustam Ali Malik were appointed ad hoc judges of the Lahore High Court for a period of two years on March 4, 2002.

Justice Pervez Ahmad, Justice Syed Sakhi Husain Bokhari and Justice Rustam Ali Malik were confirmed under an order of President Gen Pervez Musharraf on March 3 this year. The tenure of Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar Husain and Justice Farrukh Lateef was extended for another year under the same order.

Watan Party's Barrister Zafarullah Khan challenged the elevation of ATC judges as high court judges on the plea that they had been appointed in violation of the Supreme Court judgment in the Al-Jihad Trust Case because several district and sessions judges were ignored for promotion to the high court.

Another plea taken by the petitioner was that appointments had been made by the federal and provincial governments for political reasons as the judges were rewarded for their decisions as presiding officers of anti-terrorist courts. No new date for the next hearing has been fixed because deputy attorney-general submitted that he needed time to study the case.