Considering the appointment of retired judges in the Supreme Court to be inimical to the independence of the judiciary, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced that it will request the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to share its reservations about ad hoc judges.
Earlier this week, Chairman Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) and Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa proposed appointing retired judges in the Supreme Court to reduce the pendency of cases in the apex court.
“Ad hoc judges are dangerous for independent judiciary,” PTI Chairman Advocate Gohar Khan told reporters in Islamabad on Thursday, calling the move mala fide.
The lawyer and politician said that judges should not make the matter a controversial issue.
PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan said the 56,000 cases would not be resolved by appointing three or four ad hoc judges. He said it was an attempt to create a pressure group of like-minded judges.
Ayub said political workers and the legal community rejected the decision and also asked CJP Isa that their cases not be referred to ad hoc judges.
The PTI's reaction came as the JCP headed by CJP Isa is scheduled to meet on Friday (tomorrow) to consider the appointment of four retired judges of the apex court.
“In view of the huge backlog of cases and the increasing trend of initiation of cases in the Supreme Court, an effective way of ensuring that more cases are decided than are initiated and of reducing, and hopefully eliminating, cases which are pending for adjudication for several years, would be to appoint experienced judges as ad hoc judges of the Supreme Court,” read a notification at the JCP meeting.
Four judges were nominated by CJP Isa, including Justices (retd) Mushir Alam and Maqbool Baqir, Justices (retd) Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Sardar Tariq Masood.
However, Justice (retd) Baqar rejected an offer to serve as an ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court, followed by Justice (retd) Alam's refusal to work as an ad hoc judge for a period of three years.
The number of pending cases increases by 3.9% to 2.6 million
The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP), in its bi-annual judicial statistics report, said the number of pending cases in courts rose to 2.26 million during the second half of 2023, increasing the overall pendency by 3.9%.
The report revealed that 82% of the pending cases (1.86 million) were at the district court level and the remaining 18% (0.39 million cases) were at the higher level, including the Supreme Court, the Federal Sharia Court and high courts.
According to the report, 2.38 million new cases were filed during the period, while the courts managed to decide 2.30 million cases.
Despite a significant number of resolved cases, pending cases increased due to the continuous filing of new ones, the statement said.
“Civil cases make up 81% of pending cases in the higher courts, while criminal cases account for 19%,” the report added.
