ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Monday said the appointment in every public office should be made in a transparent manner, and should be merit-based.
"Every public office appointment should be transparent and merit based," said Justice Umar Ata Bandial, while heading a three-judge bench, which heard the petition regarding appointment of judges in the Sindh High Court (SHC), and civil and additional district judges in the lower judiciary of the province.
The court had asked the petitioner's counsel to satisfy on the criteria laid down in Article 184(3) of the Constitution.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan, a member of the bench, said if a person was rightly appointed and presumably incompetent then how it was affecting the rights of the petitioner covered under Article 18, ie, freedom of trade, business or profession.
Justice Bandial asked the petitioner's lawyer that a judge could not be suited unless there was an allegation against the judge, which he committed in his private capacity.
Ghulam Sarwar Qureshi has filed a petition through his counsel, Khawaja Shamsul Islam, under Article 184(3) of Constitution.
He has requested the apex court to declare the appointment of judges and other staff in the SHC as well as civil and additional district judges in the subordinate judiciary from 2017 till date as illegal, mala fide, unlawful, ultra vires, unconstitutional, and null and void, having no legal effect.
The chief justice and registrar SHC, and the provincial Law Ministry and the federal government have been made respondents.
The counsel said that the judges in the high court and lower judiciary of Sindh were appointed without process of law.
He said the chief justice SHC had violated his oath.
The petition requested the Supreme Court to order the constitution of an investigation commission consisting of senior judges of the apex court as well as the senior-most judges of the SHC to scrutinise the record of appointments made in the high court, and the district judiciary of Sindh, since 2017.
The petition believed that all such appointments were made in flagrant violations of the rules and regulations applicable in such employments.
The petitioner believes all such recruitments since 2017 were made in violation of rules.
The Supreme Court should also order the SHC registrar as well as the Sindh Law Ministry to produce the entire record of the appointments made in the high court and the lower judiciary from 2017 till date, the petition argued.
Similarly, it said, the apex court should also order the registrar and the chief justice of the SHC and the provincial law ministry to de-notify the appointments made in the high court and the lower judiciary after 2017, and direct initiation of an inquiry against the respondents and all judges of Sindh since, their appointments were made in violation of the relevant rules and regulations.
The apex court was also pleaded to issue a restraining order against the respondents from making any further appointments in the SHC as well as in the district courts till a decision on the petition.
The petition is reminiscent of a September 26, 2016 Supreme Court verdict, in which all recruitments, appointments, deputation, absorption and reappointments in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) from 2011 to the end of 2012, were de-notified.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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