Pak Govt restores eight sacked judges

The eight judges took oath in the Governor’s House in Karachi, officials said. Anwar Zahir Jamali was appointed the new Chief Justice of the High Court.

However, there was no word on whether deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry would be reinstated. A Law Ministry ministry official here said the restoration of the eight judges signalled the beginning of the process to reinstate all deposed members of the superior judiciary.

An official notification said the deposed judges of the other provincial High Courts would be reinstated soon as well.

The government has also approved an increase in the strength of the Sindh High Court from 28 to 40 judges. The reinstatement of the eight judges was criticised by the influential lawyers’ movement, which said all the deposed judges should have been reinstated at one go.

Leaders of the lawyers’ movement pointed out there had been no word from the government on whether deposed Chief Justice Chaudhry would be restored.

The deposed judges had earlier refused offers to return to their jobs, insisting on the reinstatement of all of them including Chaudhry, but the PPP-led government has now succeeded in getting some of them to agree to fresh appointments.

Musharraf sacked the judges who did not endorse the emergency rule he imposed last year. He acted at a time when it appeared that Chaudhry would rule against his re-election in uniform.

Musharraf resigned last week to avoid impeachment by the ruling coalition. On August 6, Musharraf signed a notification to reinstate the eight judges of the Sindh High Court but the move was put off following a protest from the PML-N, which was then still part of the government.

However, even at that time, deposed Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court Sabihuddin Ahmed, a critic of Musharraf, was not among the judges who were restored.

The move came two days after the PML-N, which had been insisting on reinstatement of all deposed judges at the same time through a parliamentary resolution and an executive order issued by the Prime Minister, withdrew from the coalition.