The Federal Constitutional Court has rejected the request to send back to the Supreme Court the petition filed by five Islamabad High Court judges in the judges’ transfer case.In their petition, Islamabad High Court judges Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Ejaz Ishaq Khan, and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz argued that transferring their intra-court appeal to the Constitutional Court constitutionally falls under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

Dismissing the petition, the Federal Constitutional Court said that the appeal of the Islamabad High Court judges is rejected due to non-prosecution.It should be noted that the case was related to the transfer of three judges from other high courts to the federal capital, and in June the Supreme Court did not declare the transfers unconstitutional. Against this decision, five Islamabad High Court judges had filed intra-court appeals. 

The Constitutional Court has dismissed the intra-court appeals of Islamabad High Court judges and others, thereby upholding the Supreme Court’s earlier decision. A five-member Supreme Court bench had upheld the judges’ transfer under Article 200 by majority. Similarly, intra-court appeals filed by the Lahore High Court Bar, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Tahir Faraz Abbasi, Karachi Bar Association, Riyasat Ali Azad, and Shoaib Shaheen have also been dismissed due to non-prosecution. 

The Federal Constitutional Court also rejected the request to meet or seek instructions from the founder of PTI. Chief Justice Ameenuddin Khan clarified that the court cannot issue such an order and advised that any request for a meeting should be made to the authority where the sentence was awarded.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)