KARACHI: Two out of three women judges of the Sindh High Court (SHC) are set to hang up their robes, leaving the understrength and overburdened court to function with only 29 judges against the sanctioned strength of 40.

A full-court reference was held at the SHC on Thursday on the retirement of Justice Kausar Sultana Hussain and Justice Rashida Asad. Both judges were elevated from the district judiciary and after their retirement, Justice Sana Akram Minhas will be the lone woman judge at the SHC.

Elevated to the SHC in February 2018, Justice Sultana was scheduled to retire on Thursday while Justice Rashida, appointed as the SHC judge in Aug 2019, is set to hang up her robes on Aug 21. Both had also served in the subordinate judiciary of Sindh for over two decades.

Speaking at the reference, SHC Chief Justice Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui said that it was a unique reference held for the farewell of two judges; both had served the judiciary for around three decades, which was not an easy task.

Justice Sana Akram Minhas will now be the lone woman judge at SHC

Highlighting some important judgements handed down by the outgoing judges, he also stated that they were hardworking and remaining consistent to the rule of law, they had also served at different district courts as well as special courts before their elevation to the higher judiciary.

The chief justice also said that Justice Sultana had penned around 5,000 cases as a judge of the high court while 100 cases were also reported in different journals.

He stated that Justice Sultana was enrolled as a lawyer in 1987 and appointed as civil judge in 1992. Her judicial career spanned around 32 years while he himself had appeared as a lawyer before her court when she was a senior civil judge at Karachi (East), he said.

Justice Siddiqui, who took over as top judge of the province last month, further stated that Justice Rashida served the judiciary for 28 years. He lauded the outgoing judge for pursuing her career despite the fact that she had met a tragedy.

She was enrolled as a lawyer in 1988 and directly appointed as a senior civil judge in 1996 and handed down over 3,000 judgements as a judge of the SHC, out of which around 100 were reported judgements, the chief justice added.

Justice Sultana said her professional journey from civil judge to the SHC was not possible without the support of her parents, husband, daughter, court staff and others.

Justice Rashida stated that she belonged to a middle-class family; her father was government servant and her mother passed away when she was only 16.

I was willing to adopt journalism as a profession, but become a lawyer on the advice of my mother, she added.

The outgoing judge also stated that she had a great support of her husband during her judicial career and also expressed gratitude to fellow judges.

Additional Attorney General Zia Makhdoom, Additional Advocate General Sindh Zeeshan Adhi, Prosecutor General Sindh Dr Faiz Shah, Sindh Bar Council Vice Chairman Kashif Hanif, Sindh High Court Bar Association President Rehan Aziz Malik and Karachi Bar Association President Amir Nawaz Warraich also spoke on the occasion and extolled the judicial services of both the retiring judges.

Regarding the understrength SHC, the chief justice recently admitted that the high court and subordinate judiciary of the province were facing shortage of judges and efforts would be made to fill such vacate posts on priority basis.

He had also stated that there was also a lack of space to accommodate more judges as various judges of the SHC were sharing chambers and, therefore, 12 new courtrooms would be established within a year at the Old Annexes Building of SHC.

According to the statistics gathered by the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, a staggering 83,941 cases were pending before the SHC on Dec 31, 2023.

Justice Rashida Asad had faced the tragedy in March 2001. Some criminals had forcefully entered the house of the judge in the PECHS area, held her husband Asad Mirza and two children hostage and tried to escape in her vehicle. But police intercepted them and an encounter ensued resulting in the killing of the two children and one of the criminals. The judge, who was a sessions judge at the time of the incident, had also sustained injuries.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2024