Rawalpindi bar seeks role in high court judges’ appointments

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi District Bar Association has called for a formal role in the appointment of judges to the Lahore High Court and the Islamabad High Court, saying the legal fraternity in Rawalpindi has repeatedly been overlooked in the process.

At a joint press conference, Bar President Tariq Mahmood Sajid Awan, Secretary Qamar Khan Niazi, Vice President Nazia Yasin Hashmi, Joint Secretary Ahsan Saleem and members of the executive body said the association had been ignored in judicial appointments for more than a decade. They said this had led to experienced and capable lawyers from Rawalpindi being passed over.

The office-bearers warned that if the situation continued, the bar would challenge the matter at every level and stage protests to any extent. They also said the legal community needed to unite to secure what they described as its due share in the judiciary.

Objection to restriction on judges’ visits

The association’s representatives said a notification barring judges from visiting district bars had been issued under what they called a planned conspiracy to create a divide between the bar and the bench. They said lawyers would not allow such efforts to succeed and demanded that the notification restricting judges’ entry into bar associations be withdrawn.

According to the bar leaders, Rawalpindi Bar remains excluded despite its size and standing. They said lawyers from Multan and Bahawalpur are represented on the Lahore High Court bench, while Rawalpindi Bar, which they described as the third largest in Pakistan and the second largest in Punjab, continues to be left out.

Demand for representation

The association said the Rawalpindi Bar currently has 9,000 lawyers and argued that their abilities were not being utilised. Addressing the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Judicial Commission, the office-bearers said the Rawalpindi Bar would no longer remain a silent spectator and demanded that four seats in the Lahore High Court be allocated to it.

They also named several lawyers whose names, they said, had been removed from the list of judicial appointments, including Khalid Mahmood Abbasi, Agha Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Bashir Paracha and Raja Ghazanfar.

The bar representatives further said Rawalpindi Bar had produced a number of prominent judges and lawyers, including Justice Waqas Rauf, Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan, Justice Sardar Aslam, Justice (retd) Maulvi Anwarul Haq, Justice (retd) Ibadur Rehman Lodhi, Rab Nawaz Noon, Sardar Ishaq and Chaudhry Zamarrud, all of whom, they said, had played exemplary roles.

They also alleged that the abilities of several lawyers, including Malik Waheed Anjum and Basharatullah Khan, had been wasted under a conspiracy.

The association reiterated that it wanted a defined share in judicial appointments and maintained that continued exclusion of Rawalpindi’s lawyers from the higher judiciary was unacceptable.