ISLAMABAD: First woman judge of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Lubna Saleem Pervaiz was sworn in here on Friday.
The oath was administered by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah. Pervaiz took an oath of office alongside two other judges _ Fiaz Anjum Jadran and Ghulam Azam Qambrani.
Pervaiz was earlier working as deputy attorney general at the Sindh High Court (SHC).
Pakistan President Dr Arif Alvi had appointed these three additional judges for a period of one year, according to a notification from the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The three were earlier nominated by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) and later a parliamentary panel interviewed them and then approved their names.
Under Article 175-A of the Constitution, the initial appointment of an additional judge in the high court is made for one year.
After this term expires, the JCP may consider them for a permanent position, and the Parliamentary Committee on Judges Appointment will then consider the Commission’s recommendations.
On November 21, the JCP recommended Lubna Pervaiz, Jandran and Qambrani as additional judges and the nominations were unanimously confirmed by the parliamentary committee on December 4. With these appointments now the total number of judges at the IHC has risen to seven.
According to the Islamabad High Court Act 2010, the total strength of its judges is seven. Before these appointments, only four judges were working in the IHC where more than 18,000 cases are pending.
Besides the Chief Justice Minallah, the other three judges are Justice Aamir Farooq, who is the senior puisne judge of the IHC, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb.
The Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Judges also conducted interviews of candidates for judicial posts in high courts.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) boycotted the oath-taking ceremony in protest against suspension of the licence of the Secretary of the Bar by Justice Minallah.
On Thursday, Bar Secretary Umari Baloch had tried to forcibly suspend the proceeding of the court when Justice Minallah was hearing a case.
He incited the lawyers not to appear before the court in solidarity with the lawyers community of Lahore. He had also exchanged harsh words with the court when Justice Minallah forbade him to do so.
As a result the court issued him a show-cause notice suspending his licence till the next date of hearing on December 19. The IHBA has announced to boycott Justice Minallah’s court till he withdraws his order.
