ISLAMABAD: Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth has urge the Supreme Court to appoint him against the seat of Supreme Court judge that has fallen vacant after the retirement of Justice Faisal Arab. Justice Faisal on November 5 laid down his robe on attaining the age of superannuation. Presently, there are 16 judges, including Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, in the apex court.

Justice Waqar Seth on Tuesday filed a Civil Miscellaneous Application (CMA) stating he is the most senior chief justice among all the high courts of the country. A vacancy occurred on the retirement of Justice Ejaz Afzal in May 2018, who belonged to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he added.

He prayed that his case be fixed at the earliest and in the meantime Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) may be restrained from making any recommendation against the said vacancy.

"It is convention of the Supreme Court that an appointment is made against a vacancy belonging to a particular province. Regrettably, against the said vacancy, an appointment was made from Karachi and that too of a junior judge."

Justice Waqar stated that despite the occurrence of two vacancies in the Supreme Court, appointments were made from the Punjab thus "illegally" ignoring him. It is imperative in the interest of justice and to avoid prejudice to the petitioner's seniority that this time no recommendation be made by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who is also the Chairman of the JCP, against the said vacancy until his petition is decided by the Supreme Court.

Justice Waqar submitted that the propriety also demands that the JCP does not consider any recommendation made against the vacant seat of judge in the Supreme Court till the decision of his petition. Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth was elevated to the Peshawar High Court as additional judge on August 2, 2011 and later took oath of Chief Justice PHC on 28th June, 2018. He was thrice superseded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020