The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has completed five months after becoming functional under the 18th Constitutional Amendment but the offices of four judges are still vacant.
According to the 18th Amendment, "the Islamabad High Court shall consist of Chief Justice and six other judges to be appointed one from each province, one from Islamabad Capital territory and one from Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Furthermore, the Chief Justice shall also be appointed in rotation respectively."
Currently, three judges are performing their duties in IHC, including the Chief Justice. Sajjad Afzal Cheema, President of Islamabad High Court Bar Association, talking to APP, said that the litigants' were facing problems due to the shortage of judges as the court was just taking up old cases on priority basis.
Contrary to traditional procedure of appointment of judges, a new process under the 18th Amendment was introduced and now the appointment to the judges of superior judiciary are made through the Judicial Commission and the Parliamentary Committee.
About 8,500 cases were transferred from the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench to the IHC after its re-establishment. The IHC was established in 2007 after proclamation of Provisional Constitutional Order of 2007 but was disbanded after a larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry declared all steps of November 3, 2007 as unconstitutional.
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