ISLAMABAD: A senior judge, who had challenged the promotion of his colleague and sought retroactive benefits in 2012, has been left aggrieved by a ruling of the Islamabad Judicial Service Tribunal, after the outgoing members repatriated about three dozen judges from the capital but left his plea for benefits undecided.

The tribunal, comprising Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, with its ruling triggered a backlash, with over two dozen judges banding together to contest the decision in the high court.

Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir on Friday reserved judgement in a petition filed by 24 judicial officers working in the capital’s judiciary challenging their ‘forced’ repatriation to provincial high courts.

The decision was reserved amid a parallel development in the case, with the ‘aggrieved’ judge Muhammad Shabbir withdrawing two contentious challenges against his colleague’s promotions.

The judge had told the court that the decision did not decide on his benefits appeal; therefore, he too was aggrieved in this case.

Judge Muhammad Shabbir withdrew his prayers to overturn the 2012 absorption and subsequent promotions, but this withdrawal was contingent on the acceptance of a linked case and safeguarding Shabbir’s own claim, which sought his promotion to BPS-20 with retroactive benefits.

In addition, the judges who were inducted into the Islamabad judiciary also filed a review before the tribunal, which is pending owing to the controversy over the reconstitution of the forum. The case raises complex constitutional and legal questions regarding judicial service laws, the powers of the subordinate judiciary service tribunal, and the limits of presidential authority.

On March 18, presidential notification reconstituted the tribunal’s membership, replacing three outgoing judges with Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro, Justice Mohammad Azam Khan and Justice Raja Inaam Ameen Minhas.

The outgoing tribunal members, however, declared the notification “null and void” and proceeded to issue the repatriation order—a move around three dozen judges of the federal capital claimed was made by a coram non judice (unauthorised forum).

The petitioners—including Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Abual Hasnat Mohammad Zulqarnain, District Judges Yar Mohammad Gondal and Nasir Javed Rana, and civil judges from Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—contend their repatriation violated constitutional guarantees of due process (Articles 4 and 10A) and challenges the validity of the Islamabad Judicial Service Rules, 2011.

The outgoing tribunal addressed almost all the matters, including the prayers of the appeal of Judge Shabbir, and in addition to setting aside the promotion of District and Sessions Judge Shahrukh Arjumand, also sent all the judges working in the district judiciary to their parent departments.

Interestingly, the tribunal in its nine-page judgement did not say a single word on the prayer regarding benefits, which Judge Shabbir was still pursuing.

Judge Shabbir challenged the promotion of Judge Arjumand in 2012. At the time of filing the appeal against the promotion, he was the senior civil judge. He was promoted to Additional District and Sessions Judge in July last year.

He was then seeking his back-dated benefit from the date he was supposed to hold the office and withdrew the prayers for setting aside the promotion of his colleague.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2025