ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) called for strike tomorrow (Wednesday) to protest against the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) Council meeting to consider the elevation of a “junior” judge of the Sindh High Court (SHC) to the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed has summoned the JCP meeting on July 28 to consider the elevation of a SHC junior judge, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, to the Supreme Court.

According to the PBC statement, an emergent meeting of the PBC Executive Committee was convened on Monday to discuss the hurriedly scheduled meeting of the Commission for 28-07-2021, in connection with re-consideration of elevation of Justice Mazhar, as judge of the Supreme Court, within a short span of 15 days, though his nomination was deferred in the previous meeting held on 13-07-2021, thereby raising serious reservations of the legal fraternity.

The Executive Committee of the Council in view of that has announced complete “strike call” from all the courts throughout the country on Wednesday, as a mark of complete protest and “exceptions” to the elevation of a “junior” judge by “ignoring” four senior judges of the same High Court as well as the principle of seniority as enshrined in various landmark judgments of the Supreme Court.

The Committee had also taken strong exceptions to the remarks made by Fawad Chaudhry, federal minister for information and broadcasting, wherein he has termed the principle of seniority as “ridiculous and foolish”; as his remarks are highly condemnable.

The PBC Executive Committee has also strongly condemned the incidents of violence of code of conduct of election and firing on contesting candidates and workers/activists of political parties during polling process in elections of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The Committee said it is “crystal clear that the people of AJK were not allowed to choose their real representatives.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021