ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) may get its first female judge since its establishment in 2011.

The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Thursday approved appointment of three lawyers, including Lubna Saleem Pervez, on vacant posts of judges in the court.

Advocate Lubna may become the first woman to serve as an IHC judge provided the Parliamentary Committee on Judges Appointment confirms the nominations by the JCP, which is headed by the chief justice of Pakistan, in a fortnight.

Besides Ms Pervez, who was working as the deputy attorney general in the Sindh High Court (SHC), the other two lawyers are Fiaz Anjum Jandran and Ghulam Azam Qambrani.

Mr Jandran is an Islamabad-based lawyer and member of the Islamabad Bar Council (IBC). He also held the post of IBC vice chairman a couple of years ago.

Mr Qambrani is an eminent lawyer of Balochistan and was a member of the executive committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

According to the Islamabad High Court Act 2010, “The court shall consist of a chief justice and six other judges to be appointed from provinces and other territories of Pakistan.”

At present, there are four judges running the IHC against seven sanctioned posts whereas the number of pending cases in the court has increased to 18,000.

As per Article 175-A of the Constitution, the JCP nominates the names for the vacant posts of judges in the Supreme Court, high courts and Federal Shariat Court.

The parliamentary committee consists of eight members - four each from Senate and National Assembly. Out of the eight members, four shall be from the treasury benches - two from each house - and four from the opposition benches of the two houses.

The committee is supposed to make a decision on the nomination in a fortnight.

On Nov 11, the law ministry had informed the JCP about the recommendation of IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah to fill the three vacant posts of judges.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2019