PESHAWAR: Reiterating rejection of the Judicial Commission’s recent nominations for appointment of judges to the high court, the Peshawar High Court Bar Association on Thursday announced lawyers would boycott local courts for indefinite period from the day the nominees took oath of their office after appointment by the president.

The announcement was made during a meeting of the PHCBA general body, where president of the association Essa Khan was in the chair.

Also, the participants unanimously passed a resolution recommending the holding of a lawyers’ convention on the day the nominated judges take oath of office.

The PHCBA insists the Judicial Commission had ignored merit while nominating three lawyers as high court judges.

Says lawyers will go on strike indefinitely the day nominees take oath

On Oct 17, the Judicial Commission headed Chief Justice of Pakistan Nasirul Mulk had recommended to the parliamentary committee four names for appointment as additional judges of the PHC.

The parliamentary committee, however, didn’t decide about the nominations.

Under the Constitution, if the parliamentary committee doesn’t confirm nominations within 14 days of receiving them in writing, the nominations will be considered confirmed.

The president is likely to notify soon the appointment of four nominees as additional judges of the high court.

Among the nominees are lawyers Younas Taheem, Ghazanfar Khan and Haider Ali and senior district and sessions judge Qalandar Ali Khan.

The PHCBA has been protesting against the nominations of lawyers.

Noted among speakers in the PHCBA general body’s meeting on Thursday were Essa Khan, PHCBA secretary general Ayaz Khan, Abdul Sattar Khan, Muhim Afridi, Ijaz Mohmand, Saeed Akhundzada, Sabeeha Khan, Razaullah Khan and Naveed Akhtar.

The speakers said if nominees of the Judicial Commission were appointed as judges despite the PHCBA opposition, lawyers would protest against it and that they would boycott courts if nominees took oath of their offices.

They said also expressed reservations about the process of appointment of civil judges and demanded that the appointments be made on merit.

The speakers said there were apprehensions among lawyers that children of certain judges would be benefitted and would be selected for the said posts.

They demanded early completion of the process considering experience of lawyers.

The speakers also called for the fixing of quota for women lawyers in the appointments as judges.

They called for the filling of the vacancies of additional district and sessions judges.

The speakers said no ADSJ had been appointed from the lawyers’ quota since 2008.

They expressed concern over the plight of internally displaced persons from Fata and demanded their repatriation in three months.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2014