Senior Pakistan judicial official resigns amid judge appointment dispute

Tensions in Pakistan's judicial system have intensified as Akhtar Hussain, a senior lawyer and three-time representative of the legal community in the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), responsible for appointing judges to Pakistan's superior courts, has resigned. The move came amid escalating disputes over court appointments, it emerged on Monday.

Hussain submitted his resignation to the Chairman of the JCP, citing "present controversies with regard to judicial appointments." He forwarded a copy to the Pakistan Bar Council, which has scheduled a deliberative meeting for February 26 to select a new JCP representative.

The resignation's impact is amplified by Saturday's nationwide bar election results, where government-backed bar associations suffered decisive defeats at both the Lahore and Islamabad High Court (IHC) Bar Associations, with opposition-aligned groups securing clear majorities.

'These appointments are wrong'

Salman Mansoor, General Secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told Nuktathat "Akhtar Hussain's resignation and disagreement with the judicial appointments carry weight because it's the sentiment of the whole lawyer community, and the community believes that these appointments are wrong," he said.

"If the government thinks they can hire new judges if all of the judges resign or give licenses to new lawyers if all lawyers leave practice, then they're thinking they're God," he stated, emphasizing that these transfers and appointments are harmful to the judiciary in the long run.

Mian Rauf Atta, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, offered a different perspective to Nukta. "The resignation of Akhtar Hussain is his own choice, but it would have been better if he had provided detailed reasons. However, almost all the judicial appointments have already been made," he stated, adding that "he simply did what he thought was best."

Backgrounder: bench discord

Earlier this month, Justice Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar from the Lahore High Court (LHC), Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the Sindh High Court (SHC) and Justice Muhammad Asif from the Balochistan High Court (BHC) were transferred to the IHC. The controversy centers around the alteration of the seniority list following the appointments.

The dispute intensified when Justice Dogar was appointed as acting Chief Justice of the IHC after Justice Aamer Farooq's elevation to the Supreme Court. Five existing IHC judges — Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz — opposed this appointment, arguing that transferred judges should be considered junior to existing judges since the Constitution requires them to take a new oath upon transfer.

The five judges boycotted Justice Dogar's oath-taking ceremony, leading to President Asif Ali Zardari administering the oath instead of a senior judge. They had earlier approached Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and then-IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq to challenge their loss of seniority, but Justice Farooq rejected their interpretation, ruling that judicial transfers under Article 200 of the Constitution do not reset seniority.

The controversy has expanded beyond the IHC, with four Supreme Court judges — Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Athar Minallah — writing to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to describe the transfers as "suspect."