LAHORE: With 20 vacancies of judges in the Lahore High Court, Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan has reportedly shortlisted as many candidates after an extensive exercise of headhunting in order to provide the Judicial Commission with better choices.

Sources in the LHC claim that the exercise has been carried out to ensure that candidates with strong and exceptional academic record, diversified experience and ability to write are shortlisted.

They say the candidates have been shortlisted keeping in view mainly their integrity, general reputation, intelligence, knowledge of law and professional and personal conduct. The administration committee, which comprises top seven judges, have also been fully engaged in the process.

In the recent past, some of the choices have not been proved to be correct as many additional judges have been either given an extension in probation period of one year or sent packing. It is stated that the denial of confirmation to an additional judge right after the one-year probation period proves that there have been some shortcomings and errors in the appointment process.

A list of the nominees selected last year by then chief justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan was discarded by the Judicial Commission reportedly for the reason of having poor choices.

However, sources believe that appointment against all 20 vacant slots of the judges in one go is unlikely. They insist that one main thing Chief Justice Khan considered the most is to take a bigger pool of shortlisted candidates to the commission to enable it to make better choices even if all slots are not going to be filled at once.

At present, 40 judges are working against the constitutionally sanctioned strength of 60. Last appointment in the high court was made on Oct 23, 2018 with a batch of seven judges and since then 11 judges have been either superannuated or elevated to the Supreme Court.

Pakistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Abid Saqi also sees the process of shortlisting the nominees adopted by the chief justice as transparent and satisfactory.

When asked for his opinion, he said as far as the role of the chief justice’s office was concerned, Chief Justice Khan did his best to select the most suitable candidates for elevation to the bench.

However, he said the PBC, the top regulatory body of lawyers and legal profession, still had its reservations over the functioning of the judicial commission without framing of its rules and in a manner of “majority prevails upon minority”.

He also called for amendment to Article 175A of the Constitution to make the Parliamentary Committee (on judges’ appointment) effective with equal rights.

Mr Saqi regretted that the Supreme Court in its 2011 judgment famously known as “Munir Bhatti case” made the committee dysfunctional reducing its role to a post office. He believed that parliament being the mother of all state institutions could not be made redundant in the process for the appointment of judges. He said the judiciary needed politically intellectual judges for a better and prosperous Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2020