QUETTA: A former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Kamran Murtaza, has called for restoration of the Quota System Act, 1992, and said that recruitment of the Qazis and judges of the subordinate courts should be made on the quota basis.

Addressing a press conference along with senior members of the Lawyers Panel, including Ataullah Langov, Shah Muhammad Jatoi and Muhammad Amin Kakar, on Saturday, he said that lawyers from Balochistan would protest if the quota system was not restored.

He said people belonging to interior parts of Balochistan could not compete with the candidates from the provincial capital in tests for appointment of judges and Qazis. He said that people of interior Balochistan did not have the educational facilities available in Quetta.

“Without introducing an equivalent education system and providing similar facilities for the entire province, the recruitment on merit would deprive the candidates of interior Balochistan of these vacancies,” Mr Murtaza said, adding that through restoring quota system the sense of deprivation of the people of interior Balochistan could be removed.

He said that he and other lawyers had a meeting with the chief justice of Balochistan in this regard and got no response while Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri assured them that divisional quota could be implemented but no progress could be seen in this regard.

However, the former president of the SCBA said that judges in the high court should be appointed purely on merit.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2017