Pak govt restores 8 sacked judges

The Pakistan government today restored eight of the 60 judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf, a move criticised by the influential lawyers movement which wanted reinstatement of all deposed justices at one go.

The PPP-led government reinstated eight deposed judges of the Sindh High Court, two days after the PML-N of Nawaz Sharif pulled out of the ruling coalition accusing the ally of reneging on the promise to restore the sacked justices.

The eight judges took oath in the Governor’s House in Karachi, officials said. Anwar Zahir Jamali was appointed the new chief justice of the high court. However, there was no word on whether deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry would be reinstated.

A law ministry official here said the restoration of the eight judges signalled the beginning of the process to reinstate all deposed members of the superior judiciary.

An official notification said the deposed judges of the other provincial high courts would be reinstated soon as well.

The government has also approved an increase in the number of judges of the Sindh High Court from 28 to 40.

The reinstatement of the eight judges was criticised by the influential lawyers’ movement, which said all the deposed judges should have been re-appointed at one go.