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KARACHI The working strength of the Sindh High Court has nosedived from 36 to nine following the Supreme Court judgment of July 31.
The court still has strength of 15 judges, including Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, but six of them have not been assigned any judicial work for the week starting from Aug 3 and ending on August 8, according to the cause list urgently revised on Saturday.
The six judges whose names have been retained on the SHC website but dropped from the roster drawn for the next week are Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro, former chief justice and hitherto third on the seniority list; Justice Munib Ahmed Khan, who figures eighth on the seniority list; Justice Mrs Yasmeen Abbasy, 10th in seniority; Justice Mrs Qaiser Iqbal, 11th; Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo, 12th; and Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui.
Two division benches and three single judges will be working at the principal seat in Karachi next week.
One division bench comprises Justice Mushir Alam, the senior puisne judge, and Justice Muhammad Athar Saeed and the other Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah.
The single judges dealing with the appellate side cases are CJ Jamali, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Maqbool Baqar.
Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab have been assigned to the Hyderabad circuit and the Sukkur bench, respectively. The roster was signed by Justice K.A. Hussain as the CJ had to leave to attend a meeting.
Justice M.A. Soomro took over as chief justice of the court following the proclamation of emergency, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, on Nov 3, 2007.
He was later transferred to the Federal Shariat Court as its chairman but was re-transferred to the SHC as an ordinary judge after appointment of Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan, SHC judge and federal law secretary, as the FSC chief.
Justices M.A. Khan, Yasmeen Abbasy, Qaiser Iqbal, A.S.D. Metlo and N.A. Siddiqui were also confirmed judges when they took a fresh oath under the provisional constitution order of Nov 3. Justices Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi and Abdul Rehman Faruq Pirzada, who have ceased to be judges, took the oath under the PCO as additional judges and were confirmed on March 13, 2009, along with Justice Salman Ansari, who has also been relieved.
Other judges relieved are Justice Khalid Ali Z. Qazi, who was appointed an additional judge during emergency and was confirmed in September 2008, and all additional judges appointed on March 3, 2009, that is, Maqbool Ahmed Awan, Safdar Ali Bhutto, Moharram G. Baloch, Malik Muhammad Aqil, Syed Shafqat Ali Masoomi, Ms Sofia Latif, Muhammad Iqbal Mahar, Khadim Hussain M. Sheikh, Muhammad Ismail Bhutto, Arshad Siraj Memon, Aamir Raza Naqvi and M. Karim Khan Agha.
Justices Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani and Abdul Rasheed Kalwar, whose petitions resulted in the Supreme Court judgment of July 31, also ceased to be additional judges.
Both members of the judicial service, they said they were appointed additional judges in September 2007 but did not take the oath under the PCO.
Their tenure as additional judges should extend to September 2009 after their reappointment in August 2008, they said.
New CJ?
Meanwhile, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany is likely to become the new chief justice of the high court on his reversion from the Supreme Court in terms of the July 31 judgment.
He was the senior puisne judge when the emergency was imposed and he refused to take a fresh oath. However, he agreed to 'reappointment' as an SHC judge in September 2008.
He was elevated to the Supreme Court without having to work as an SHC judge. (The late) Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, was given the oath as a Supreme Court judge at about the same time without being sworn in as a high court judge.
Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, who was third in seniority in 2007, thus became the chief justice on his 'reappointment' as a judge in August 2008.
Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan, the FSC Chairman, was elevated to the high court along with his judicial service colleagues, Justices Syed Pir Ali Shah, Arshad Noor Khan and Bin Yamin in December 2007.
All of them have ceased to be judges. He has evidently been saved by an observation in the July 31 judgment that declares that 'nothing shall affect those judges who though had been appointed as judges/chief justices of any of the high courts between Nov 3, 2007, and March 23, 2009, but had subsequently been appointed afresh to other offices in consultation with or with the approval of or with the consent of the Constitutional Chief Justice of Pakistan'.
Earlier, the judge was given the benefit of his 1995-96 stint as an additional judge.
