A writ petition likely to be filed against Acting Chief Justice
Special Correspondent;
ISLAMABAD, (Parliament Times): Important personalities have been active in creating the new constitutional crisis in Azad Kashmir. A writ petition is likely to be filed in the High Court to disqualify Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Raja Saeed Akram.
According to sources anti-Chief Justice lobbies including the Presidency and the Prime Minister’s Office of Azad Kashmir have prepared a writ to challenge his appointment which will be filed in the Azad Kashmir High Court at any time. According to sources, the writ petition will challenge the appointment of Justice Raja Saeed Akram as a judge in the Supreme Court in which questions have been raised on his eligibility on the ground that he was not registered as a lawyer in Azad Kashmir at the time of his appointment. Pertinently, the Presidency has previously been active in blocking the appointment of Justice Raja Saeed Akram as permanent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It is worth mentioning here that there is already a crisis in the High Court of Azad Kashmir. Following the retirement of Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal of the Supreme Court, there is only one judge in the court, Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram, due to which most of the important cases which require a bench of more than one member are pending.
Similarly, after the disqualification of five former judges of the High Court, there is a crisis in the High Court. Although the Azad Kashmir Assembly had removed the constitutional loophole in the appointment of judges through the 14th Amendment, new judges have not yet been appointed to the High Court or the Supreme Court. The summary sent to the Chairman Council has not been approved so far in which the President of Azad Kashmir had urged that Raja Saeed Akram should not be appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, because of the miss conduct reference against Raja Saeed Akram, which will be filed on completion of the Supreme Judicial Council.
According to sources, in the said summary, the President has written that acting Chief Justice of Azad Kashmir High Court Azhar Saleem Babar should be appointed as a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court but the Pakistani government did not respond to the summary yet. After the removal of five judges of the Azad Kashmir High Court, the President and the Prime Minister are angry with the Acting Chief Justice of Azad Kashmir Raja Saeed Akram and they do not want to appoint him as a permanent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Due to the ego of two top government figures of the state, there is a severe judicial crisis in Azad Kashmir at present. The three-member Supreme Court currently has only one judge whom the government wants to remove. After the retirement of Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, the Azad Kashmir Supreme Court has become practically inactive.
Like the Supreme Court, there are six vacancies in the nine-member High Court. The High Court has been without a permanent Chief Justice for a year and a half. All the Bar Councils of Azad Kashmir, Bar Councils of Pakistan have also repeatedly appealed to the Chairman Council Council and the Government of Azad Kashmir on the ongoing judicial crisis in Azad Kashmir but no attention is being paid to this issue.
