KARACHI, July 24: The Sindh government has appointed four judges to the anti-terrorism courts in the province.
Sources told Dawn on Thursday that the notification of four ATC judges was issued on Wednesday by the home department.
They said the provincial chief secretary had sent a list of nine candidates, recommended by the home department for the posts of ATC judges, to the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court on July 18 for his consent and concurrence.
However, the sources said, the chief justice gave consent to the appointment of only four judges as rest of the candidates did not meet the requirements for the post of ATC judges. They said the CJ gave concurrence to the appointment of Anand Ram Hotwani, a former district attorney, Hasan Shah Bukhari, a former district and sessions judge and former member of the services tribunal, and two lawyers belonging to the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, Bashir Ahmed Durgai and Azizullah Abro.
Sindh Home Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan told Dawn that Mr Bukhari and Mr Hotwani were inducted as presiding officers of the ATC-1 and ATC-3, respectively, in Karachi.
“Mr Bashir Ahmed Durgai and Azizullah Abro have been posted as ATC judges in Mirpurkhas and Khairpur, respectively,” he added. The ATC-2 in Karachi is headed by Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon, a former district and sessions judge.
They said ATC- 4 in Karachi was shifted to Larkana some two years ago after it remained without a judge for several months.
The sources said the ATC-5, headed by Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch, was also being transferred to Badin, the hometown of Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza.
Interestingly, Mr Baloch, a former special public prosecutor of ATC-3, is the only non-Sindhi-speaking ATC judge being posted in the interior of Sindh where most of the legal proceedings, such as writing of FIRs and charge-sheets, are conducted in the Sindhi language. They said the chief justice turned down the candidature of Bashir Ahmed Memon, a former district and sessions judge, and four PPP lawyers – Khan Mohammed Zardari, Mohammed Essa Mallah, Ashraf Sammo and Saddarudin Ujjan – as they did not meet the requirements for being appointed as ATC judges.
The sources said the Sindh government had earlier floated a summary for the appointment of nine judges to the chief justice of the Sindh High Court in mid June. They said the CJ, however, turned down the candidature of all nine candidates and directed the authorities to move a fresh summary.
The sources said the Sindh government moved a fresh summary for the appointment of the ATC judges and submitted the same list of candidates.
They said the chief justice turned down the candidature of the four candidates with the observation that they did not fulfil the requirement laid down under Section 14 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The sources said a candidate for the post of ATC judge was required to have standing in the Sindh High Court for not less than 10 years.
They said rejected candidates Mr Zardari and Mr Mallah were enrolled in the Sindh High Court bar in 2001 and Mr Sammo in 2003, while Mr Ujjan was not even enrolled with the SHC bar.
Meanwhile, the sources said that the Sindh government had earlier on November 17 had floated a summary to the SHC Chief Justice for the appointment of Naimat Ali Randhawa and Mazhar Qayyum as ATC judges.
They said the chief justice gave the consent to the appointment of the two candidates and sent back the summary to the Sindh government with his approval.
However, the sources said, the summary has so far been neither approved nor rejected by the Sindh chief minister.
They said the posts of judges were still lying vacant in three ATCs, two in Larkana and one in Jacobabad. The sources said Judge Akhlaq Hussain Larak and Judge Ahmed Nawaz Shaikh were posted in ATCs in Hyderabad and Sukkur, respectively.
