MUZAFFARABAD: A constitutional and judicial crisis looms over Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) due to the non-appointment of the territory’s permanent top judge, the legal fraternity has warned.

On March 31, the AJK Supreme Court’s chief justice Ibrahim Zia retired on attaining the age of superannuation and ever since this office has been held by the senior-most judge, Raja Saeed Akram Khan, as acting chief justice.

According to Article 42(3) of AJK Constitution, the Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and two other judges.

The chief justice is appointed by the AJK President on the advice of the AJK Council – headed by the prime minister of Pakistan - and each of the other judges of the apex court are appointed by the president on the advice of the council after consultation with the said chief justice.

Unlike Pakistan, judges in the AJK Supreme Court can also be appointed directly, apart from elevation from the high court.

Legal fraternity sources recalled that in early 2017, the retirement date of the then chief justice Mohammad Azam Khan and nomination of Mr Zia as his successor were announced in one and the same notification.

AJK Supreme Court chief justice retired in March and has not been replaced with a permanent successor

However, the practice was ignored on the eve of Justice Zia’s retirement or else the existing problem would not have occurred, they added.

In early March AJK President had sent a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan for his advice in this regard.

However, in its response after five months the Prime Minister’s Office reportedly maintained on the recommendation of the federal Law Division that this issue could now be settled only at the council meeting after some of the council members moved a resolution to this effect.

This, according to the opinion of the Law Division, was because of the 13th amendment in the AJK Constitution, prior to which the chairman could exercise executive authority on behalf of the council.

An official at the AJK presidency claimed that President Khan had submitted a resolution in the council secretariat in accordance with the law division’s opinion.

“On our part everything has been done… We are now waiting for the council meeting to be summoned by the chairman,” he said, on condition of anonymity.

However, legal fraternity sources warned that a further delay in this regard could virtually render the AJK apex court dysfunctional, because after the retirement of Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal in December the apex court would be left with just one judge and a single member bench would not be able to hear appeals etc.

The absence of a permanent chief justice, sources said, had also adversely affected the functioning of high court, which too was being headed by an acting CJ - Azhar Saleem Babar - since February this year.

Between February and July this year, six high court judges were shown the door due to technical flaws in their recruitment, following which the high court was working with just three judges against its sanctioned strength of nine, sources said.

In a statement on Saturday, legal fraternity leaders deplored the “insouciant attitude” of the authorities concerned in this regard, and warned against “direct action” if timely steps were not taken to avert a “constitutional and judicial crisis” in AJK.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2020