Eight judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) resigned on Thursday from their offices and sent their resignations to the President of Pakistan through LHC registrar. The judges include Mian Najam-uz-Zaman, Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq, Muhammad Khalid Alvi, Fazal-e-Miran Chohan, M. Bilal Khan, Syed Asghar Haider, Sakhi Hussain Bokhari, and Tariq Shamim.
The judges in their resignations contended that in view of the judgement of the Supreme Court in civil petition No 09 of 2009 they wanted to opt pre-mature retirement under article 195 of the Constitution, read with PO 03 of 1997. However four sitting judges Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Justice Hasnat Ahmad Khan, Justice Syed Hamid Ali Shah, and Justice Sajjad Hussain Shah didn't submit their resignations and decided to contest their case.
The Supreme Court had issued show cause notices to 26 sitting and removed judges of the court for taking oath under PCO in violation of a judgement delivered by a seven-member bench of the apex court on November 3, 2007.
The sitting judges to whom notices were issued included: former chief justice LHC Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain, presently judge of SC, Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman, Justice Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq, Justice Muhammad Khalid Alvi, Justice Fazal-e-Miran Chohan, Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Justice M. Bilal Khan, Justice Syed Asghar Haider, Justice Hasnat Ahmad Khan, Justice Sakhi Hussain Bokhari, Justice Syed Hamid Ali Shah, Justice Sajjad Hussain Shah and Justice Tariq Shamim.
The retired judges include former chief justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam, Justice Mian Hamid Farooq, Justice Muzammil Khan, Justice Hakam Ali and Justice Sheikh Javed Sarfraz. While the removed judges are Zubdat-ul-Hussain, Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Khawaja Farooq Saeed, Akram Qureshi, Khurshid Anwar Bhindar, Saif-ur-Rehman and Ali Hassan Rizvi. They were facing contempt proceedings under Article 209 of the Constitution before the Supreme Judicial Council.
APP adds: Some more resignations were tendered along with un-conditional apology by PCO judges of High Court of Sindh (SHC), here on Thursday. Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui filed his resignation through his counsel Mazhar Ali B Chauhan and also tendered un-conditional apology seeking permission to withdraw his review application, while Justice Khawaja Naveed Ahmed did the same personally.