Appointments based on seniority; IHC nomination sparks legal debate
ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), chaired by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, has approved the appointment of permanent chief justices for four key high courts—Peshawar, Balochistan, Sindh, and Islamabad—based on seniority among eligible candidates.
According to sources cited by Express News, Justice SM Attique Shah has been appointed as the permanent Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, selected from a pool of three candidates that included Justices Ijaz Anwar and Arshad Ali.
For the Balochistan High Court, Justice Rozi Khan was confirmed as the new chief justice, having been the most senior among nominees, ahead of Justices Muhammad Kamran Khan and Iqbal Ahmed Kasi.
In Sindh, Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar was unanimously appointed Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, topping the court’s seniority list and enjoying broad support within the commission.
Meanwhile, for the Islamabad High Court (IHC), the JCP reviewed three names—Justices Sarfraz Dogar, Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, and Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb. Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar was selected by majority vote, with nine commission members endorsing his appointment. He also holds the highest seniority among the contenders.
Objections Raised on IHC Appointment
Outside the Supreme Court, Senator Ali Zafar, a JCP member representing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), reiterated his long-standing view that only the most senior judge should be appointed as chief justice. He criticised the commission for proceeding with the IHC nomination while an intra-court appeal regarding judges’ seniority remains undecided.
“If our position is not accepted, we will cast our votes accordingly,” Zafar said, without revealing how he voted.
The intra-court appeal in question was filed by five IHC judges, challenging the Supreme Court’s earlier endorsement of judicial transfers involving three judges to the IHC, including Acting Chief Justice Dogar. The petitioners—Justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Babar Sattar, Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan, and Saman Rafat Imtiaz—have also requested the apex court to bar the transferred judges from performing judicial or administrative functions until the matter is resolved.
The appeal, filed through counsels Muneer A. Malik and Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed, adds a new layer of complexity to the ongoing debate over judicial appointments and seniority principles in Pakistan’s high courts.
