SC begins hearing presidential reference on IHC judges appointment

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing a reference sent to it by President Asif Ali Zardari seeking a court advice to resolve a controversy over the elevation and appointment of Islamabad High Court judges.

A five-judge bench of the apex court, comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Tariq Parvez, Justice EjazAfzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, was hearing the presidential reference. During the hearing, Advocate WaseemSajjad, representing the referring authority (the President), began his arguments before the bench. The controversy was over the composition of the 11-member Judicial Commission (JC) in which Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi, one of the judges whose nomination had been finalised by the JC as the IHC’s next chief justice, himself sat in place of senior judge Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan who was in Saudi Arabia for Haj when the commission had met at the time. The two judges   Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman and Justice Kasi   were nominated by the JC and approved by the Parliamentary Committee (PC) under Article 175-A, inserted in the Constitution under the 18th and 19th Amendments. The JC, in a separate meeting, had also recommended elevation of IHC Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman to the Supreme Court. But the President House had returned both the recommendations to the JC with an observation to reconsider the nominations because the commission which had finalised the names had not been constituted properly. http://rtilive.pk/detail/7696