President Asif Ali Zardari has barred 76 judges of the Supreme Court and high courts from holding their offices. The judges, who were barred from carrying out their duties, took oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) imposed by the former president on November 3, 2007.
President Zardari has issued this order on Monday in pursuance of July 31 judgement of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and approved that the 76 judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan and high courts, who will cease to hold their offices with immediate effect. These PCO judges would face references in Supreme Judicial Council expected to meet by the end of this month.
Out of 76 PCO judges, nine are from the Supreme Court, 34 from Lahore High Court, 20 from Sindh High Court, six from Peshawar High Court and seven judges from Islamabad High Court. The President also approved the repatriation of Justice Sakhi Hussain Bukhari and Justice Zia Pervez from Supreme Court of Pakistan, while Justice Bilal Khan has been repatriated from Islamabad High Court.
The affected judges included Justice Muhammad Qaim Jan, Justice Ijaz-ul-Hassan, Justice Muhammad Moosa K. Leghari, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousuf, Justice Mian Hamid Farooq, Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, Justice Muhammad Farrukh Mahmud, Justice Shaikh Hakim Ali and Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam from the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Justice Zubda-tul-Hussain, Justice Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Justice Khwaja Farooq Saeed, Justice Muhammad Akram Qureshi, Justice Khurshid Anwar Bhindar, Justice Mazhar Hussain Minhas, Justice Saifur Rehman, Justice S. Ali Hassan Rizvi, Justice Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti, Justice Rana Zahid Mahmood, Justice Kazim Ali Malik, Justice Hafiz Tariq Nasim, Justice Khalil Ahmed, Justice M. A. Zafar, Justice Malik Saeed Ejaz, Justice Syed Shaheen Masood Rizvi, Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi, Justice Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon, Justice Pervez Ali Chawla, Justice Habibullah Shakir, Justice Nazir Ahmed Ghazi, Justice Abdul Sattar Goraya, Justice Syed Ihtasham Qadir Shah, Justice Ms Jamila Jahanoor Aslam, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Khan, Justice Jamshed Rahmatullah, Justice Pervez Inayat Malik, Justice Arshad Mahmood, Justice Irfan Qadir, Justice Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, Justice Chaudhry Naeem Masood, Justice Anwar-ul-Haq Pannu, Justice Muhammad Shafqat Khan Abbasi and Justice Imtiaz Rasheed Siddiqui of Lahore High Court.
Justice Bin Yamin, Justice Khalid Ali Z. Qazi, Justice Salman Ansari, Justice Abdul Rehman Farooq Pirzada, Justice Abdul Rasheed Klwar, Justice Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, Justice Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi, Justice Ms Soofia Latif, Justice Maqbool Ahmed Awan, Justice Safdar Ali Bhutto, Justice Moharram G. Baloch, Justice Malik Muhammad Aqil, Justice Syed Shafaqat Ali Shah Masoomi, Justice Muhammad Iqbal Mahar, Justice Khadim Hussain M. Sheikh, Justice Muhammad Ismail Bhutto, Justice Arshad Siraj Memon, Justice Aamir Raza Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Salman Talibuddin from Sindh High Court.
Justice Shaji Rehman Khan, Justice Ghulam Mohyuddin Malik, Justice Ziauddin Khattak, Justice Syed Mussaddiq Hussain Gilani, Justice Syed Yahya Zahid Gilani and Justice Muhammad Alam Khan from Peshawar High Court Justice Muhammad Munir Paracha, Justice Syed Qalb-i-Hassan, Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan, Justice Muhammad Arshad Tabrez, Justice Amjad Iqbal Qureshi, Justice Muhammad Ramzan Chaudhry and Justice Syed Intikhab Hussain Shah from Islamabad High Court, which was totally seized from functioning by the Supreme Court.
It is pertinent to note that a full bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on July 31, 2009 has nullified the November 3 imposition of emergency and PCO by former president Pervez Musharraf. The judgement was issued on constitutional petitions 9 and 8 of 2009 filed by the Sindh High Court Bar Association and Nadeem, ahmed, advocate against Federation of Pakistan.