Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Peshawar High Court Mazhar Alam Miankhel has proposed five names to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) for their appointment as additional judges of the high court. Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali has summoned the meeting of Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) for appointment of additional judges in Peshawar High Court (PHC), sources confirmed to Daily Times.

Sources in the Supreme Court office said that the meeting is scheduled to be held on 28 November. The JCP in its meeting will also decide the fate of two additional judges of Islamabad High Court (IHC) as to whether the names should be confirmed or otherwise. The five names for PHC proposed by chief justice Miankhel include two session judges and three advocates. Two session judges include Muhammad Bashir, currently working as a judge in Anti-Corruption Provincial Court in Peshawar and Muhammad Ayub Marwat, a judge in Peshawar.

The three advocates include Umer Farooq, currently working as Assistant Prosecutor General National Accountability Bureau Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, President Peshawar High Court Bar Association Muzammil Khan and Advocate Mian Hussain Ali. Currently fifteen judges are working in PHC while the total number of judges’ slot is twenty. Similarly, the JCP will also consider the names of two additional judges of IHC for confirmation or otherwise.

The two IHC additional judges include Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb. The tenure of both is ended on 23 December 2016. According to the Constitution’s Article 175-A – introduced through the 18th amendment – the JCP works under the chairmanship of the CJP. It also comprises the federal law minister, four senior-most judges, the attorney general of Pakistan, a retired judge and a representative of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC). The JCP sends its proposals regarding appointment and confirmation of superior court judges to the parliamentary committee on judges’ appointment. However, the committee has not held any meetings since October 2015 as it is protesting against being turned into a ‘rubber stamp’ by the JCP. The current procedure for appointing judges has attracted criticism in the last few years.