August 27, 2008	Wednesday	Sha'aban 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: Eight deposed judges of the Sindh High Court are expected to return to their seats on Wednesday, opening the way for more inductions as the federal government is planning to increase the strength of high court judges to 40 from 28.

“The government is contemplating appointing additional judges to raise the existing strength of the high court to 40 for a period of one year in view of the heavy work load,” an official source told Dawn, adding that timely disposal of cases in the province had become a big issue.

He said the government might adopt a similar strategy for appointments in the Lahore High Court.

While extending an apology on the break-up of the five-month-old ruling coalition on Monday, PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had appealed to PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to let the deposed judges be reinstated, saying that reinstatement of the chief justice will also come ‘eventually’. He said that all deposed judges would be restored ‘very soon’.

Deposed chief justice of the Sindh High Court, Sabihuddin Ahmed, had recently stated that the deposed judges seeking a fresh oath under the Constitution should not be called PCO judges.

Also, Law Minister Farooq H. Naek has been asking the deposed judges to take fresh oath under the Third Schedule of the Constitution.

At present 18, out of a total of 28 sanctioned judges, are working in the SHC.

The judges who are likely to take fresh oath are: Anwar Zaheer Jamali (expected to become the Chief Justice), Khilji Arif Hussain, Amir Hani Muslim, Faisal Arab, Sajjad Ali Shah, Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, Salman Ansari and Abdul Rashid Kalwar.

Earlier, their re-entry to the superior judiciary was aborted after Mr Sharif protested their appointments before the signing of the Islamabad communiqué calling for restoration of all deposed judges within 24 hours of the impeachment or resignation of former president Pervez Musharraf.

Then reports about the signing of a summary by the former president for their appointments had sent a wave of shock and anger across the country, with a number of lawyers and political parties describing it as an attempt to sabotage the agreement between PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to impeach the president.

Former Supreme Court Bar Association president Muneer A. Malik said the fresh appointments would mean that the judges had been validly dismissed on Nov 3 and, therefore, amount to accepting the validity of the Provisional Constitution Order.

In reply to a question about the seniority of judges, a senior official said the seniority would be reckoned from their original date of appointment by implementing the formula devised for former Supreme Court judge Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi.

Justice Abbasi had to start practice after leaving the Lahore High Court as a consequence of the judgment in the 1996 Al-Jihad Trust, commonly known as the judges’ case. He was re-appointed sometime in 2000 in the superior judiciary on a representation, but for the purpose of seniority, his date of appointment was reckoned as August 28, 1992 -- the date of his elevation as high court judge.

Syed Faisal Shakeel adds from Lahore: Deposed judges in Punjab have expressed their ignorance about any fresh offer of restoration or re-appointment.

A source said a summary for the appointment of judges in the Lahore High Court was in the pipeline.

The judges to be appointed are: Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Ijaz Chaudhry, Justice Sair Ali and Justice M.A. Shahid Siddiqui. He claimed that the names of Justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif and Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman were not included in the list.

Deposed Justice Sarmed Jalal Usmani said: “I do not know of any offer. All I know is that I am not going to accept any offer if it excludes any judge sacked by the former president Pervez Musharraf on Nov 3 last year.”

He said there were five or six judges who were unwilling to accept the offer.

Deposed Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said no one had approached him with any offer. He said an offer could be considered only if it was routed through parliament. “Even then we reserve the right to either accept or reject the offer,” the judge said.

Deposed Justice M.A. Shahid Siddiqui said a fresh oath would amount to accepting the imposition of emergency and the removal of judges as legal and constitutional.