• Authorized fraternity mulls transferring court docket
• Insiders say JCP might rethink determination to handle ‘imbalance’ in excessive court docket as a consequence of 2025 transfers
ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Fee of Pakistan’s (JCP) determination towards contemporary appointments within the Islamabad Excessive Court docket (IHC) following the switch of its three judges has invited scrutiny from the capital’s judges and attorneys, who worry that transfers from different provinces would deprive them of illustration within the excessive court docket.
The controversy began after the JCP, throughout its April 28 assembly, permitted the switch of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani to the Lahore Excessive Court docket, Justice Babar Sattar to the Peshawar Excessive Court docket and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz to the Sindh Excessive Court docket, and determined that the vacant seats wouldn’t be handled as contemporary vacancies.
The choice, which induced consternation among the many judiciary as nicely, was opposed by attorneys, together with the Islamabad Excessive Court docket Bar Affiliation (IHCBA). In a declaration issued after a gathering of its government physique, the IHCBA careworn the necessity to fill vacant positions within the excessive court docket with “certified and deserving members of the authorized fraternity”.
A JCP member instructed Daybreak The fee believed that to take care of stability among the many excessive courts, the posts ought to be crammed by means of transfers from the excessive courts involved as a substitute of creating new appointments. Amid considerations by the authorized neighborhood, the member, nevertheless, agreed that the state of affairs within the IHC was distinguishable contemplating the switch of three judges from provincial excessive courts to the IHC in February 2025.
The member was alluding to the switch of three judges, together with IHC Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar, to the IHC. Subsequently, no decide from the IHC had been transferred to any provincial excessive court docket, and that is now being cited by sections of the authorized neighborhood as proof of an imbalance within the association.
Sources throughout the judiciary instructed Daybreak that efforts have been underway to steer the JCP to revisit its latest determination to handle this ‘imbalance’. Some members might urge the fee to deal with the newest transfers of IHC judges as ‘reciprocal changes’ towards the final 12 months’s transfers, they added. “There may be room for evaluate as a result of precedents do exist the place the fee revisited its personal observations,” a supply aware of the deliberations mentioned.
The supply additionally referred to the case of Justice Ali Baqir Najafi, at present serving as a decide of the Federal Constitutional Court docket (FCC), whose elevation from the LHC had as soon as attracted antagonistic remarks from the JCP. These observations have been subsequently expunged by the fee itself. Towards this backdrop, the JCP member instructed Daybreak The fee “might rethink its latest determination in view of the present composition” of the IHC.
Curiously, insiders disclosed, the proposal was not mentioned at an inside pre-meeting earlier than the formal JCP session and was as a substitute launched through the proceedings. These pre-meetings are often convened to evolve consensus among the many ‘like-minded’ JCP members.
‘Unhappy legal fraternity’
The development also unsettled judges in the IHC, who are worried about their seniority, and the district judiciary judges, who are worried about its elevation prospects. Insiders said the availability of six vacancies in the high court had created a strong possibility that at least a couple of positions could go to judges serving in the sessions courts, but the JCP decision not only dashed their hopes but also made lawyers unhappy.
Islamabad Bar Council Member Raja Aleem Abbasi argued that the IHC was established for the federal capital territory and that vacancies should be filled from within Islamabad’s legal fraternity.
“Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani belonged to Islamabad. Therefore, the vacancies created after their transfer should be filled through lawyers from Islamabad,” he said. Abbasi maintained lawyers from all provinces were already practicing before the IHC and could be considered against provincial quotas where required.
Pointing out that Islamabad lawyers had suffered last year after the three IHC seats were filled through transfers from other high courts, he warned another three appointments through transfers would further deprive Islamabad-based lawyers of representation in the IHC.
‘Resist with full force’
Calling the move “unacceptable”, Abbasi said the lawyers’ community would resist the decision “with full force”.
Lawyers in Islamabad were already deliberating on challenging the JCP’s decision before the IHC. However, legal experts pointed out that any verdict in such litigation could ultimately be appealed before the FCC, where the matter may receive final constitutional determination.
Even then, there was already a precedent for judicial scrutiny of the commission’s decisions. In 2012, an additional judge of the IHC, Azim Khan Afridi, had challenged the JCP’s decision not to confirm him as a permanent judge of the high court.
Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2026
