ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: Chairman of executive committee of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Mian Abbas Ahmed has called an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss, among other issues, the appointment of additional judges in the Sindh High Court (SHC) and the Balochistan High Court (BHC).

The meeting will be held in the office of the PBC situated on the Supreme Court premises.

Established under an act of parliament, namely the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, the PBC is the most prestigious elected body of lawyers in Pakistan which exercises general control and supervision over the provincial bar councils besides regulating affairs of the legal profession and deciding cases of professional misconduct against advocates.

President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday approved the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee for the appointment of District and Sessions Judge Karachi (Central) Shaukat Ali Memon, District and Sessions Judge Karachi (East) Ashraf Jehan, District and Sessions Judge Karachi (West) Shahnawaz Tariq, Registrar SHC Abdul Malik Gaddi, advocates Nazar Akber, Mohammad Junaid Ghaffar, Zafar Ahmed Rajput and Hassan Feroze as additional judges in the SHC.

The president also approved the appointment of additional judges in the BHC for a period of one year. The judges were Shakil Ahmed, currently holding the post of Advocate General of Balochistan, and advocates Mohammad Ejaz and Mohammad Kamran Mulakhail.

The summary for the appointment of additional judges was sent to the president by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after the nominations were forwarded to the Parliamentary Committee by the Judicial Commission.

An informed source told Dawn that the PBC’s executive committee is expected to take a hard line when it will meet on Saturday against the backdrop of the opposition and criticism by the Balochistan High Court Bar against the nomination of the three individuals to be elevated as additional judges of the provincial high court.

The provincial bar association has not only observed a strike in Quetta, but it has also passed a resolution expressing their shock over the appointments. The PBC’s executive committee has requested the former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, Yaseen Azad, who is also representing the council as its nominee in the judicial commission, to discuss the role of the council’s nominee at the meetings of the Judicial Commission.

The Judicial Commission is seized with amendments in the Judicial Commission Rules, 2010 suggested by the PBC.