The Commission invited nominations to fill three vacancies in the IHC and five in the BHC
ISLAMABAD:
In what appears to be the first such exercise since its inception, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) has started conducting interviews of candidates nominated for appointment as high court judges.
A seven-member JCP committee, headed by Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, on Monday interviewed 27 candidates for appointment as additional judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the Balochistan High Court (BHC).
The commission had invited nominations to fill three vacancies in the IHC and five in the BHC.
The members of the Judicial Commission proposed a total of 20 candidates for the BHC and seven for the IHC.
The seven-member committee interviewed all candidates and finalized their recommendations for each candidate.
The committee spent approximately 15 to 20 minutes interviewing each candidate. Each committee member shared their assessment of each candidate before a final decision was reached by majority vote.
PCJ members are known to understand that candidates under the age of 45 are unlikely to be approved for appointment as judges. However, there is no constitutional impediment that prevents a lawyer under the age of 45 from being appointed a High Court judge.
One of the candidates said The express PAkGazette that the committee asked questions about the reported judgments attached to his performance.
Two candidates said the committee asked them why they wanted to become high court judges.
Sources said The express PAkGazette that the committee concluded that some candidates did not meet the standard required for judicial appointment.
However, the majority of the candidates proposed by the two Chief Justices were found suitable for appointment.
A prominent lawyer said there was a need to evaluate the independence, integrity and courage of the candidates, adding that the prevailing circumstances required judicial candidates to be sensitive to civil liberties issues.
“If judges are to be appointed to the constitutional courts in Pakistan, they must be fearlessly independent and competent. To achieve that, talents have to be scouted and persuaded to join the judiciary,” he said.
Before the passage of the 26th Constitutional Amendment, the parliamentary committee on judicial appointments used to conduct interviews of candidates for high courts.
This is the first time that representatives of all stakeholders (the judiciary, the executive and the legislature) have come together to interview candidates for judicial appointments.
The committee is scheduled to interview the candidates nominated for judgeships in the Sindh High Court today (Tuesday).
