ISLAMABAD - Applications seeking extension in retirement age of Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit Baltistan judges at par with the judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir was dismissed yesterday.
A three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar after hearing the arguments of two judges of Gilgit Baltistan dismissed the petition. The judge said this is not the case of violation of fundamental rights.
Justice Muzzafar Ali and Justice Jalal-ud-Din of Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit Baltistan had filed the constitutional petition under Article 184(3) of Constitution.
Justice Raja Jalal-ud-Din, who is the judge of Supreme Appellate Court of GB since 28th January 2013, will retire on February 8, 2016 at the age of 62 years and three months, while Justice Muzzafar Ali would retire at the age of 61 years.
The petitioners stated the appointment and terms and conditions of judges in Gilgit Baltistan have to be brought at par with the appointments in Supreme Court of Pakistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir to ensure security of tenure and complete independence of the judiciary in Gilgit Baltistan. “The retiring age of the judges of the GB Supreme Appellate Court should also be made that of the judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan and AJK.”
The distinction between the retiring age of GB and SC Pakistan and AJK is discriminatory and violation of the basic structure of 1973 Constitution as well as international norms of the independence of judiciary, the lawyer argued.
Asaf Vardag, representing the judges, said the people of Gilgit Baltistan though citizens of Pakistan have been deprived of their fundamental rights by treating them differently from the people of Pakistan and AJK.
He said the executive power to extend the tenure of judges of GB Appellate Court is destructive to the independence of the judiciary.
Vardag contended that if section 60 of Gilgit Baltistan (Empowerment and Self Governance Order 2009) is construed strictly then the judges would retire prior to the age of superannuation.
Justice Jalal-ud-Din, in the petition, stated that according to the Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951, as adopted for the Northern Areas on September 18, 1981 he is the citizen of Pakistan.
He said section 60 of Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order 2009 is in conflict with the Articles 8,9,10,10-A, 25, 175 and 203 of the constitution, therefore, liable to be struck down or suitably amended.