RAWALPINDI: Two senior judges of Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench have been transferred and asked to join the principal seat at Lahore and the Multan bench while Justice Babar Sattar of Islamabad High Court (IHC) will resume his office next week.

According to the roster issued by the registrar office of the LHC, Justice Jawad Hassan and Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz have been transferred to Lahore and Multan, respectively.

Justice Hassan was hearing corporate and commercial cases while Justice Aziz was entrusted with criminal matters. They are at number 18 and 20 on the seniority list, respectively.

They have been replaced by Justice Anwaar Hussain and Justice Mohammad Raza Qureshi. These judges are at number 32 and 35 of the seniority list of the LHC judges.

Meanwhile, Justice Babar Sattar will resume his court from Oct 30.

The IHC judge may again go on long leave from Nov 4

According to the duty roster of the IHC issued for the next week, Justice Sattar is among the available judges. He went on a month-long leave amid speculation that he would not resume work.

Sources said Justice Sattar will resume the court on Oct 30 and would work till Nov 1.

According to the sources, the judge is likely to avail another long leave, at least for a fortnight, from Nov 4.

The sources claimed that Justice Sattar was not happy with some amendments to the constitution related to the judiciary.

These amendments were part of a draft bill that surfaced initially. The judge was concerned about the proposed federal constitutional court and transfer of judges. However, parliament approved the amendment bill in which the clauses related to the constitutional court and judges’ transfer were not included.

Justice Sattar was among six judges who sent a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council early this year, detailing alleged harassment at the hands of intelligence operatives. Justice Sattar is also hearing the audio leak case in which state agencies are accused of snooping on citizens in an unlawful manner.

During the course of hearing of this case, the existence of a mass surveillance system ‘Lawful Intercept Management System’ to keep tabs on citizens was revealed.

In the same case, the judge filed a complaint with the IHC chief justice and pointed out that he was being targeted because of his stance in the audio leaks case.

Justice Sattar had requested IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq to initiate contempt proceedings after personal details of his and his family, including their US residence permits, were posted online. The judge pointed out that the privacy of his family members was breached, and their identity cards and permanent residency cards were uploaded on social media.

Subsequently, the IHC directed the Federal Investigation Agency to proceed against the persons identified for spreading the personal data of Justice Sattar on social media.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2024