LAHORE - Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday again directed the provincial and federal governments to file their replies till February 2 on a constitutional petition praying to restrain government from appointing new judges in superior judiciary on 'political consideration'. During previous hearing on December 23, the judge also issued notice for their replies but appearing before the court advocate general Punjab and a deputy attorney general of Pakistan sought time to comply with the orders. The Petitioner had made party only to the federal government in his petition, however, the court also issued notices to the Punjab government through the advocate general observing that the intensity of the matter required comments of the provincial government too. The court has sought comments from respondents within next 15 days. Petitioner Syed Feroz Shah Gillani, through A K Dogar Advocate prayed the court to direct the prime minister to establish a judicial appointments commission for the appointments of judges on the pattern of England and Wales. The petitioner said the matter of judges' appointments is a sacred trust but in Pakistan the appointments in superior judiciary are made without ascertaining the merit and impartiality of the candidates, ignoring the Islamic injunctions and also in violation of the directions of the constitution. He said the independence and impartiality of judiciary is the foundation of democracy and socio-economic justice. Article 2A of the constitution states "the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed." The petitioner stated that the fundamental rights including equality of opportunity and status of other lawyers, who have completed 10 years of high court practice, are negated and flouted by the government when they are not allowed to apply for appointment in the superior judiciary. "Only people with political affiliations are appointed as judges," the petitioner alleged. He further alleged that contrary to the constitutional directions, the present federal government had secretly selected some lawyers having affiliation with a particular political party to be appointed as the judges of high courts of the country. Petition withdrawn The Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed as withdrawn the petition seeking directions for the government to stop issuing a coin with image of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The LHC office on January after raising objection returned the petition. The office objected that the Islamabad High Court was the proper forum in this case because the federal government had been made a party in the plea. On Tuesday the petition was fixed as objection case. The petitioner, Asim Bhatti, submitted that such a coin would set a precedent for the future governments to issue coins with images of their party leaders. He said that Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal's images should be retained on coins, and that others' be barred from making it a practice.