ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on Judges’ Appointment has approved the appointment of Babar Sattar and Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri as judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

The eight-member committee held its meeting at the Parliament House on Monday and Mr Sattar and Mr Jahangiri appeared before it.

The committee comprised Senators Farooq H. Naek of PPP, Javed Abbasi of PML-N, Azam Swati of PTI, Sarfraz Bugti of BAP and National Assembly members Raja Pervez Ashraf of PPP, Rana Sanaullah of PML-N and Ali Mohammad Khan and Mohammad Asim Nazeer of PTI.

Talking to journalists, convener of the committee Senator Abbasi said the panel had approved nominations of Mr Sattar and Mr Jahangiri.

When asked if any member of the treasury benches opposed any nominations, Mr Abbasi said that Ali Mohammad Khan, the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, had opposed the nomination of Mr Sattar and did not cast his vote in the latter’s favour.

He, however, did not disclose on what ground Mr Khan opposed the candidature of Mr Sattar.

Last month, the committee had interviewed three lawyers: Fiaz Ahmed Anjum Jandran, Ghulam Azam Qambrani and Lubna Saleem Pervez and then approved their candidatures as IHC judges.

With the appointment of two more judges, the total strength of IHC judges has gone up to nine.

Recently, the parliament has increased the sanctioned strength of the IHC from seven to 10.

At present seven judges are working in IHC, including three additional judges.

Talking to media persons, Mr Sattar said that as the committee had received information about credentials of judges from different sources, a candidate should interact with members of the committee directly to respond to their queries and to make his position clear.

In reply to a question about his assets, Mr Sattar said his local and foreign properties had been declared in his tax returns.

He further said that he had resigned from some family-owned companies where he had been associated as the director.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2020