PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has sought records of the parliamentary committee for appointment of judges regarding the rejection of the Judicial commission of Pakistan`s recommendations to grant six-month extension to three additional judges of the high court.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah fixed July 11 for next hearing into a petition filed by lawyerMaqsood Ali against the June 16 move of the parliamentary committee to reject the decision of the judicial commission to extend the tenure of the three additional judges.

It observed that it would decide the matter on its own if the government didn`t produce records of the parliamentary committee`s June 16 meeting.

The petitioner requested the court to declare unconstitutional the parliamentary committee`s decision of not extending the tenure of the three judges, including Justice Fazal Subhan, Justice Shahid Khan and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal.

The additional judges were appointed on July 18, 2022, for a period of one year, which will expire on July 17, 2023.

Barrister Dr Adnan Khan appeared for the petitioner and stated that on Jan 5, 2022, theJudicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) had recommended six people for elevation as the additional judges of the Peshawar High Court, including the three judges in question, who were from the judicial service, as well as three lawyers.

He said that the recommendations were referred to the parliamentary committee for confirmation in accordance with Article 175-A of the Constitution.

The lawyer said in an in-camera meeting on Jan 19, 2022, the committee confirmed the recommendations regarding the three lawyers but rejected those related to the three judges.

He added that several petitions against that move of the committee were filed with the high court, which accepted those petitions on May 10, 2022, and directed the government toimplement the recommendations of the JCP.

Barrister Adnan said the three additional judges were appointed last yearfor a period of one year.

He contended that the federal government had challenged that judgement of the high court in the Supreme Court through different appeals, but the apex court rejected the plea on May 30, 2023, upholding the verdict of the high court.

The lawyer said that as the tenures of the three judges were about to end, the JCP held its meeting on June 7.

He said that according to media reports, the federal law minister and attorney general for Pakistan informed the meeting that as the government intended to file a review petition against the May 10 Supreme Court orders, the matter shouldbe postponed for the time being.

Barrister Adnan contended that relying on the said proposal, the JCP decided to extend the tenure of the three judges by six months.

He, however, said that the parliamentary committee met on June 19 and decided not to confirm the recommendation of the JCP.

The counsel said that there were no genuine grounds available with the parliamentary committee to reject the recommendation of the JCP.

He added that while the law minister and attorney general for Pakistan were members of the JCP, half of the members of the parliamentary committee also belonged to the treasury benches and there was no justification for the committee to reject recommendation of the former body.