ISLAMABAD: Three judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) have removed their personal belongings from the high court building amid rumours of their imminent resignations in light of the 27th Amendment.
Sources told Dawn that Justices Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Babar Sattar and Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan had packed their personal effects and shifted them back to their respective residences over the past week.
According to court officials, the judges instructed their staff to separate all books, documents, decorative pieces, and other personal effects that they had brought to the IHC after their elevation. The staff completed the packing earlier this week, and the material was quietly moved out of the high court building.
Sources said that the directions to pack up their chambers were issued shortly after the 27th Amendment came into force. The amendment has fundamentally altered the judicial structure by creating the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) and enabling the transfer of high court judges without their consent.
Insiders say three judges have moved out their personal belongings
Two of the three judges — Justice Sattar and Justice Jahangiri — were appointed on Dec 30, 2020, and would remain entitled to pension and post-retirement benefits if they submit their resignations after Dec 31. Justice Sardar Ejaz, appointed on Dec 17, 2021, does not qualify for such benefits under the current rules unless the president exercises discretionary authority to relax the criteria.
The three judges are among the six IHC judges who last year wrote a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) alleging interference of intelligence agencies in judicial affairs. The letter had triggered a debate over the independence of the judiciary and prompted calls for an inquiry from various quarters. Following this, five of the judges — Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz, and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz — challenged the transfer of three judges to the IHC earlier this year.
The transferred judges — Justice Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro, and Justice Mohammad Asif — were moved from the Lahore, Sindh and Balochistan high courts in February.
Justice Dogar later became the chief justice. The transfer orders were contested before a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, which dismissed the petition on June 19. The judges then filed an intra-court appeal before the newly established FCC, which also rejected their plea.
