ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) has de-liberated on the elevation of Justice Aalia Neelum as the next chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC).
Justice Shujaat Ali Khan is the senior puisne judge in the LHC, while Justice Neelum is third in the se-niority list of the LHC after the elevation of incumbent LHC CJ Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan to the Supreme Court.
Although it is not a constitutional requirement to appoint the senior puisne judge of a high court as the next chief justice, all senior puisne judges have been appointed as the CJs since the change of procedure in the appointment of supe-rior courts judges through the 18th Constitution Amendment in 2010.
However, prior to the amendment, some senior puisne judges had been su-perseded by junior judges. One such instance was that of Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who was not the se-nior puisne judge but was elevated to the position of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) CJ.
Sources revealed to The Express Tribune that there was a detailed informal discussion among the JCP members on Friday about the appointment of the next LHC CJ after the eleva-tion of incumbent CJ Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan. During the meeting, Justice Yahya Afridi sug-gested that once any high court judge is ignored for elevation to the SC despite his seniority, he must not be considered for his ap-pointment as an SC judge next time. –Agencies
