LAHORE, July 29: Justice Fakharunnisa (retired) has questioned the elevation of three high court judges to the Supreme Court, saying that the seniority principle had been ignored while making these appointments.

The constitution and the Supreme Court decision had been violated twice before, the former Lahore High Court judge told Dawn by phone here on Thursday. She asked the government to explain the reasons and motive behind the promotion of the chief justice of Peshawar High Court and Justice Javed Buttar and Justice Syed Tasaddaq Husain Jilani of Lahore High Court.

She said the chief justice of Pakistan had directed the government to elevate all the four chief justices of provincial high courts, but the government took an independent decision that betrayed malafide intentions.

The former LHC judge also criticized the government for taking seven months to fill the Supreme Court vacancies. She said the vacancies should have been filled within 30 days as envisaged by the apex court decision in the Judges (Al-Jihad Trust) Case.

She said her retirement should have paved the way for the elevation of all the four provincial chief justices. The principle set by the apex court was overruled, she maintained.

Justice Fakharunnisa also condemned the murder attempt on Advocate Wahabul Khairi in Islamabad and said that motives behind the attack on an upright lawyer should be made public.

She said the attack on Mr Khairi was meaningful because it was made at a time when he was invoking the jurisdiction of Supreme Judicial Council for a probe against some corrupt judges.

She demanded that those responsible for the attack should be arrested and a high-level inquiry launched by independent agencies. Ms Fakharunnisa said she was writing two books at present. The first, titled My Judgments, was about to be published. The other would be titled "My Days to Gallows".