KARACHI, July 13: Amid criticism from the lower judiciary the Sindh government has notified promotion of 16 additional district & sessions judges (B-19) as district & sessions judges (B-20).

Those who have been promoted are Amir Ali Thari, Muhammad Riaz Rajput, Ahmad Nawaz Shaikh, Ghulam Hussain Mallah, Viqar Sabir, Abdul Rasool Memon, Muhammad Farooq Shah, Raja Lahrasab Khan, Ms Riffat Shaikh, Shoukat Ali Memon, Sadiq Hussain Bhatti, Muhammad Aziz Jamali, Azam Anwar Baloch, Ghulam Ali Samtio, Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi and Mrs Ashraf Jehan.

In addition to these, the following senior civil judges and assistant sessions judges (BPS-18) have been promoted additional district & sessions judges (BPS-19) with effect from the dates they assume charge.

According to the Sindh government notification, those promoted include Khadim Hussain Tunio, Ahmed Saba, Ms Farzana Anwar, Abrar Hussain F. Memon, Syed Hassan Saeed, Ms Kausar Sultana, Irshad Ali Shah, Ghulam Mustafa A. Memon, Ghulam Mustafa G. Memon, Abdul Latif Golo, Imdad Hussain Khoso, Manzoor Hussain Sobhopoto, Ms Farzana Iqbal, Ms Sher Bano, Ubaidullah Khan, Amjad Ali Kazi, Muhammad Zafar Hussain, Ms Shamim Akhtar, Amjad Ali Bohio, Gulshan Ara Chandio, Muhammad Shahid Shafiq, Khalid Mahmood Bhatti and Zulfikar Ali Shah.

Some members of the Sindh Bar Council have expressed concern over the recommendations of promotion for what they called promotion of “corrupt and inefficient civil judges, additional district judges, district & sessions judges and judicial magistrates by the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court.”

Referring to the names recommended for promotion, members of the SBC claimed that if those judges were promoted, the people would lose faith in the judiciary and which would reduce the lower judiciary to a farce.

The Pakistan Bar council, Sindh Bar council and Karachi Bar Association have protested against this state of affairs and demanded that the Bar be taken into confidence before deciding this matter because, according to them, the judges are not happy with the injustice committed against senior judicial officers who have been victimized.

The Association demanded that the committee be wound up and a separate impartial committee be formed which scrutinize all the cases minutely and the deserving judges be promoted on merit.

In another development, the Sindh Judicial Officers Welfare Association has claimed that 94 judges of Sindh’s lower judiciary have threatened to resign in protest against these promotions.

A press release, issued by the SJWA, maintained that in a meeting of the Executive committee of the Sindh High Court, which was held for recommending the promotion of senior civil judges to the posts of additional sessions judge and additional sessions judges to the post of sessions judges, merit was allegedly sacrificed at the altar of nepotism and favouritism.

A delegation had appraised Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed of the Sindh High Court and the provincial minister of law of the matter, and they gave a patient hearing to their grievances and promised to look into the matter.