RAWALPINDI: Justice Babar Sattar of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) will return to work next week, while two senior justices from the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench have been requested to join the Multan bench and the main seat in Lahore.
Justice Jawad Hassan and Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz have been moved to Lahore and Multan, respectively, based on the roster released by the LHC registrar office.
While Justice Aziz handled criminal cases, Justice Hassan heard business and corporate cases. On the seniority list, they are ranked 18 and 20, respectively.
Justices Anwaar Hussain and Muhammad Raza Qureshi have taken their places. According to the LHC judges’ seniority list, these judges rank 32 and 35, respectively.
Judge Babar Sattar will return to court on October 30.
The IHC judge may take a lengthy leave of absence starting on November 4.
Justice Sattar is listed as one of the available judges on the IHC’s duty roster for the upcoming week. There were rumors that he would not return to work, so he took a month-long leave.
According to sources, Justice Sattar will return to the court on October 30 and serve till November 1.
The reports indicate that starting on November 4, the judge is probably going to take another extended leave of absence, at least for two weeks.
According to the sources, Justice Sattar did not approve of certain constitutional revisions pertaining to the judiciary.
These changes were originally included in a draft bill. The judge was worried about the judge transfers and the projected federal constitutional court. Nevertheless, the amending bill that omitted the provisions pertaining to the constitutional court and the transfer of justices was adopted by parliament.
Early this year, Justice Sattar was one of six justices who wrote to the Supreme Judicial Council about alleged harassment by intelligence agents. The audio leak case, in which state agents are accused of illegally snooping on civilians, is also being heard by Justice Sattar.
The existence of a widespread surveillance system called the “Lawful Intercept Management System” to monitor citizens was made public during the court hearing.
The judge in the same case complained to the chief justice of the IHC, pointing out that he was being singled out due to his position on the audio leaks issue.
Following the internet publication of himself and his family’s personal information, including their US residency permits, Justice Sattar had asked IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq to start contempt proceedings. The judge noted that his family members’ identity cards and permanent residency cards were posted on social media, violating their privacy.
The Federal Investigation Agency was then instructed by the IHC to take action against the individuals found to have disseminated Justice Sattar’s personal information on social media.
