ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court’s Cons­titutional Bench was told on Thursday to maintain transparency while transferring judges from one high court to another.

It should not become a norm that a judge, who was 16th in the seniority list at his parent high court, becomes the senior-most after being transferred to another high court, argued senior counsel Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed on Thursday.

He was referring to the Islamabad High Court acting Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, who was a junior judge at the Lahore High Court but became the second-most senior judge after being transferred to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) earlier this year.

After the transfer, he became the frontrunner for appointment as IHC’s top judge, following his predecessor, Justice Aamir Farooq’s elevation to the Supreme Court.

Lawyer argues junior judges shouldn’t leapfrog colleagues for elevation to apex court after transfer

Five IHC judges — justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Babar Sattar, Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Saman Rafat Imtiaz — challenged the move in the Supreme Court.

They argued the three transferred judges should not be treated as IHC judges until they take a fresh oath under Article 194.

A five-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, took resumed the hearing on the joint petition on Thursday.

Barrister Ahmed also argued that it shouldn’t become a practice that a judge, after their transfer to another high court, is considered for elevation to the Supreme Court, while leaving their senior colleagues at the high court from which they were transferred.

Justice Mazhar reminded Mr Ahmed that though IHC judges raised objections on the seniority of the transferred judges, no such dispute on seniority was ever raised by any judge of the LHC.

Barrister Ahmed argued the office of a judge cannot become vacant even if they are transferred to another high court. Otherwise, Article 175A of the Constitution will become redundant with the permanent transfer of a judge from one high court to another.

The said article laid down the procedure for the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, high courts and the Federal Shariat Court Justice Mazhar conceded that the present con-troversy over the seniority of judges before was a case of first impression, which had never been dealt with earlier.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2025