KARACHI, Oct 9: The Sindh High Court directed on Tuesday the state to provide record of the appointment of 48 civil judges and judicial magistrates by a selection committee of the Sindh High Court on the basis of the quota system.

A division bench, comprising Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Ali Aslam Jafery, passed the order when the petition filed by four employees of the SHC, Ayaz Muhammad Khan, Jameel Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Hanif and Shaikh Muhammad Farooq, challenging the appointments, came up for hearing.

The Advocate-General Sindh, Raja Qureshi, was present when the counsel for the petitioners, Gohar Iqbal, submitted that his clients should be appointed because they had secured more marks than those selected on the basis of the quota system.

The petitioner’s counsel had earlier submitted that the SHC had conducted written test for the post of civil judges and judicial magistrates four months back, and the selection committee of the SHC interviewed those who succeeded in the written examination.

He said the selection committee appointed 48 civil judges and judicial magistrates on the basis of results of test and interviews as well as on the basis of the quota system, which was first time in the history of the SHC.

It was their contention that the selection committee did not select the petitioners despite the fact that they had secured more marks as compare to other selected candidates. They prayed the court to consider results of the written test and interviews on merit instead of the quota system.

The matter is now fixed for Oct 12.