Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar refuses position of ad-hoc judge

ISLAMABAD: Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has excused himself from accepting the position of ad-hoc judge in the Supreme Court due to personal reasons.

The Supreme Court is considering the appointment of retired judges to decide over 54,000 pending cases.

The Judicial Comm­ission of Pakistan (JCP), which appoints judges to superior courts, will meet on Friday (tomorrow) to deliberate on the appointment of four retired judges as ad hoc members of the court.

Sanam Javed set free

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, the JCP will consider the names of retired justices Mushir Alam, Maqbool Baqar, Mazhar Alam Mian­khel and Sardar Tariq Masood for the appointment.

However, Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has excused himself from accepting the ad-hoc judge position. He said that appointment of ad-hoc judges is in line with the constitution and any objection on it is unjustified

He said that he is refusing the position due to personal reasons and his busy schedule.

PTI OBJECTS TO AD-HOC JUDGES

Meanwhile PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan termed the appointment of ad-hoc judges by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa nothing but a ‘ploy to ‘fix’ the bench’, urging the nominated judges to decline the offer or else the nation would remember them as ‘rubber stamps’.

The PTI spokesperson said that the appointment of ad-hoc judges was an attempt to destroy the real structure of the SC to convert it into a “personal court” of an individual, to gain artificial numerical superiority, hoping the principled and righteous judges would decline the offer and would not part of the plan to ruin the judiciary.