March 17, 2006	Friday	Safar 16, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 16: The opposition senators on Thursday criticized the appointment of two retired judges in the Supreme Court on an ad hoc basis and accused the government of violating the apex court’s 1996 verdict in the judges case.

The issue came under discussion during the question hour when Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Wasi Zafar in a written reply to a question of MMA’s Ismail Buledi informed the upper house that at present 19 judges were working in the court against its sanctioned strength of 17. The minister said two retired judges — Hamid Ali Mirza and Karamat Nazir Bhandari — had been appointed as ad hoc judges for a period of one year up to September 13.

People’s Party Parliamentarians’ Senator Farooq Naek said the appointments on ad hoc basis were made when there were no suitable candidates available for a job. He questioned as to why two retired judges had been appointed when there were judges in high courts.

Minister of State for Law Shahid Akram Bhinder said the government had not violated the constitution by making ad hoc appointments.

PPP’s Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi alleged that the government had been violating the 1996 judgment in the judges case, which determined the principle of seniority for high courts and SC judges.

When the minister asked the PPP senator to mention where the violation had been made, Mr Abbasi said the chief justice of the Lahore High Court should have been elevated to the Supreme Court bench in the light of the judges case verdict.

Earlier, Raza Mohammad Raza of the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party and Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party regretted that out of the total confirmed SC judges, eight belonged to Punjab, while three judges each were from Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan. They said the appointment of judges should not be made on the basis of population.

Mr Baloch suggested that the house should recommend that judges in the SC should be appointed on equality basis as it would help remove the sense of deprivation among small provinces to some extent. He proposed that there should be four judges in the SC from each province, while one judge each should be appointed from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), Northern Areas and Islamabad capital territory.