It is being speculated that the ruling coalition at the federal level is contemplating to reduce the age of retirement of the CJ of Apex Court from 65 years or to curtail his tenure to four or five years. This would act to the disadvantage of the present incumbents, which would mean in other words compulsory retirement for them before their normal tenure or age of retirement. Since compulsory retirement of government servants is considered a penalty and the Article 12 of the constitution protects against retrospective punishment, it boils down to the fact that the terms and conditions of service of a judge of the superior courts cannot be changed to his detriment. The new rules or amendments ought to apply to future incumbents of superior courts. We must give at least that much protection to our judges that is normally available to the civil servants, to whom even the new adverse pension rules do not apply if these are to their disadvantage. It is advisable that all serving Judges of the superior courts must not be dealt with adversely to their existing conditions of service otherwise it would amount to retrospective punishment. -DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI, Lahore Cantt., via e-mail, April 26.