Karachi: The Peoples Party has been successful in nominating judges of its choice to the constitutional benches of the Sindh High Court.
Interestingly, eight senior judges of the Sindh High Court have been ignored in the nomination of constitutional judges.
The head of the benches, Justice KK Agha, is at the 9th position in the seniority list. It should be noted that constitutional benches will be created only in the Sindh High Court.
The other three provinces and the federation did not pass the resolution regarding the ratification of constitutional benches. It has been learned that Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar and Sindh High Court Chief Justice Shafi Siddiqui disagreed with the majority opinion and said that all judges of the Sindh High Court should be nominated for constitutional benches.
Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel and the lawyers’ representatives did not support their opinion. In this matter, he was on the same page with the government representatives.
Justice KK Agha was the Additional Attorney General and Prosecutor General NAB during the Peoples Party era. He also defended the 18th Constitutional Amendment as a public prosecutor.
He was among the few judges who were reappointed as a judge of the Sindh High Court after being removed by an order dated July 31, 2009. Justice KK Agha had refused to renounce his foreign citizenship to become a judge.
The PTI government also filed a reference against him for not declaring alleged foreign assets, but after withdrawing the reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the Supreme Judicial Council also dropped the proceedings against him.
Former President of the Sindh High Court Bar Salahuddin Ahmed said that the Sindh and federal governments have succeeded in selecting judges who they believe will oppose them the least. Abdul Moeez Jafri said that limiting the constitutional scope of the High Court to nine judges is a joke that cannot be sustained.
