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KARACHI, Feb 18: A division bench of the Sindh High Court issued notice to the attorney-general in a writ petition by seven senior civil judges-cum-additional sessions judges against direct appointment of 25 lawyers as senior civil judges in the province in 1996.
The petitioners said they were inducted into the lower grade of the Sindh Judicial Service as civil judges and first class magistrates in 1992 after a minimum of three years practice at the bar and before the enforcement of the Sindh Judicial Service Rules, 1994. The rules were framed to regulate appointments, promotions and other service matters relating to the judicial officers serving in the province.
The rules provided for direct appointment only to the lower grade ( civil judges and judicial magistrates) and, to the extent of one third of vacancies, of additional district and sessions judges. Senior civil judges were to be appointed by promotion from among the serving civil judges and judicial magistrates on the recommendation of the provincial selection board but if no suitable judge of the lower grade was available, they could be appointed directly by way of initial recruitment.
The petitioners’ grievance is that 25 senior civil judges were inducted in 1996 by an acting SHC chief justice by initial appointment in the presence of suitable civil judges. The directly appointed senior civil judges were neither recommended by the provincial selection board nor a committee of three SHC judges was constituted for the purpose by the full court. Their (the petitioners’) suitability was never determined. The appointments could not have been made by an acting chief justice in the light of the 1996 Supreme Court verdict in the Judges Case.
The division bench, which consisted of Justices Mohammad Roshan Essani and Anwar Zaheer Jamali, directed that a notice be issued to the attorney-general in the petition for a date in office.
DETENTION CASE: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Sindh and Punjab home secretaries in a writ petition alleging wrongful confinement of a person in different jails of the two provinces for the last eight years.
The petitioner, Ms Ruqayya Begum, stated that her son, Abid Rasheed, went missing in 1994 and she lodged a complaint with the Nazimabad police station in whose jurisdiction she lived. She was not given any information by the police until she came to know that her son was held in custody in the Sukkur jail. She went to Sukkur and saw Abid in the jail. She was informed by the jail superintendent that her son was being held in connection with a case registered by the Nazimabad police station.
The petitioner returned to Karachi but was unable to obtain any information from the Nazimabad police. She went to Sukkur again but could not meet her son as, according to the jail superintendent, Abid had been transferred to Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. She said Abid had committed no offence and had been illegally detained since 1994.
A division bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Roshan Essani and Anwar Zaheer Jamali, issued notices to the two provincial home secretaries, the superintendents of the Central Prison, Karachi, Sukkur and Adiala jails and the SHO of Nazimabad police station for Feb 26.
AFAQ’S BROTHER: The Sindh High Court disposed of as not pressed a writ petition questioning the arrest and detention of Shafqat alias Guddu, brother of MQM (Haqiqi) chief Afaq Ahmad.
Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan informed a division bench that Shafqat was detained under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance in January for one month and had been released. The petitioner, Ms Akhlaq Jehan, did not press her petition and the bench comprising Justices Mohammad Roshan Essani and Anwar Zaheer Jamali disposed it of accordingly.
DEATH CERTIFICATE: The hearing of a constitutional petition filed by a widow against refusal to issue death certificate of her deceased husband was adjourned till tomorrow by a division bench of High Court of Sindh, adds APP.
The bench, comprising Justice Muhammed Roshan Essani and Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, was hearing a constitutional petition filed by Ms Tehmina Noor. The petitioner submitted that her husband, Mehboob Ali, an employee of the PWD, died on Jan 12, 2002 after which she applied to the Nazim of Union Council 4, Mustafa Taj, of Korangi Town.
She maintained that the required fee and other documents were duly submitted by her but the certificate was not issued to her by respondent Dr Shafqatullah Khan, the UC Nazim, on one or another pretext.
