By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday named Justice Sardar Dogar the “senior-most judge” of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), settling a contentious dispute over judicial seniority despite a fresh challenge from five IHC judges.
The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling affirming the constitutionality of transferring three judges to the IHC earlier this year.
The Supreme Court, in a June 19 verdict, upheld the constitutionality of transferring three judges to the IHC and tasked the president with determining their seniority. The transfers, Justice Sardar Dogar from the Lahore High Court (LHC), Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the Sindh High Court (SHC), and Justice Muhammad Asif from the Balochistan High Court (BHC), occurred earlier this year, unsettling the IHC’s seniority structure and igniting a fierce debate within Pakistan’s judiciary.
On Friday, five incumbent IHC judges, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, filed a challenge to the Supreme Court’s ruling. Their action reflects ongoing tensions over the integration of transferred judges into the IHC’s hierarchy.
Under the latest seniority list, Justice Dogar now holds the top position, while Justices Soomro and Asif are ranked ninth and eleventh, respectively.
President Zardari also declared the transfers of all three judges permanent, cementing their status within the IHC.
The dispute in February, when the same five IHC judges submitted a representation asserting a constitutional requirement: A high court judge, upon transfer to a different high court, must take a new oath, which should determine their seniority.
“The inter se seniority of the transferred judges should be determined from the date they took oath as justices of the IHC,” their petition stated, arguing that this would place the transferred judges below them on the seniority list.
The controversy has not been without symbolic gestures. The five judges notably absented themselves from Justice Dogar’s oath-taking ceremony as the acting IHC chief justice, signaling their disapproval of the seniority decision.
The transfers, initiated by the law ministry, first disrupted the IHC’s seniority rankings earlier this year, prompting immediate pushback. The Supreme Court’s June ruling aimed to settle the matter by affirming the transfers’ legality, but the subsequent challenge from the five judges and Sunday’s presidential action suggest the issue remains far from resolved.
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