DNA
ISLAMABAD: Justice (retd) Mushir Alam has declined to accept the nomination for his appointment as an ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court.
“After careful deliberation, under present circumstances, it is with a heavy heart that I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept this esteemed appointment,” read Justice (retd) Alam’s letter addressed to SC Chief Justice and Chairman Judicial Commission Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
The former judge’s refusal to accept the said post comes after sources told Geo News that CJP Isa had nominated him along with Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqir Justice (retd) Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice (retd) Sardar Tariq Masood for appointment as ad hoc judges due to increasing accumulation of cases.
A retired judge can be appointed ad hoc judge in three years or less and four former judges of the SC have been proposed to be made ad hoc judges for three years.
The meeting of the Judicial Commission will be held on July 19 at 3pm in the top court’s conference room.
Appointment of ad hoc judges is aimed at ensuring more cases are decided than instituted and to reduce, and hopefully eliminate the cases which are pending adjudication for several years, said the SC notification.
As per the statistics reflected in the bi-annual report of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, the number of pending cases in the courts surged to 2.26 million during the second half of the year 2023, increasing the overall pendency of cases by 3.9%.
The report revealed that 82% of the pending cases (1.86 million) were at the district judiciary level and the remaining 18% (0.39 million cases) were at the upper tier, including the SC, Federal Shariat Court, and high courts.
As per the report, 2.38 million new cases were filed during the period, while the courts managed to decide 2.30 million cases.
