BRUSSLES: Chairman Balawaristan National Front (BNF) Abdul Hamid Khan has condemned the appointment of what he said incapable and incompetent persons on the posts of judges in Gilgit-Baltistan.
In a statement posted in the party’s website, www.balawaristan.net, Hamid Khan said this has been the tradition of the occupation regime to depute such persons as judges in Gilgit-Baltistan who can provide huge amount of money to the minister and secretary of KANA division as per their requirement. He said this approach of the KANA ministry for appointment of members or chairman of the courts ditching themselves in NAs House for long time or nearby Islamabad or Rawalpindi was condemnable.
“There are two so-called courts called Chief Court and Appellant Court of Balawaristan (Pakistan occupied Gilgit-Baltistan) nowadays whose members (not called Judges) are appointed by the Pakistani minister for Kashmir and Northern Affairs on contract basis. These judges’ appointment is not made on the merit basis rather solely on the political and religious considerations”.
The BNF chief pointed out that a senior most lawyer and attorney Mr Hafiz-ur Rehman (now secretary of local bodies) has always been deprived of his due service as judge by sidelining him to other non-professional duties because neither he has religious and political background nor the capacity to pay any bribe to the competent authorities and their boss. ‘Now-a-days the open bids of Rs6 million for a member/judge for the Chief Court and Appellant Court has been introduced by KANA Ministry. The only fault of Hafiz-ur Rehman is his old friendship with the chairman of BNF’.
The BNF chief further warned that the appointment of sycophants and illegible persons for even these kangaroo courts should be avoided. The selection of the chairman and members of these courts are not considered on merit but on loyalty with the Minister of KANA and its Secretary is important under the direction from that minister and Pakistan’s bureaucrats who are holding administrative, Financial and Judicial powers in the Area.
‘A premier intelligence agency of Pakistan is another factor which gives directions to the Minister and Secretary of KANA about the appointment of the Chairman/members/Judges. This intelligence agency also dictates the so-called members/Judges on different cases of their interest. The present Chairman of Appellant Court has been selected by considering his financial ability, religious as well as political views not their ability in Judiciary (although higher qualified legal professional than the present Chairman are available in Gilgit-Baltistan but the present govt is reluctant to respect the merit), who owns the extremist views and largely involved in victimizing the non-fanatic religious groups the majority population of the region. But Islamabad’s obduracy is determined to continue its illegal occupation by exercising extra-sovereign and extra-constitutional powers to suppress the local indigenous people by all means.
‘It is ironic that the two million local indigenous people of this disputed land have no right to seek Justice anywhere, because it does not fall under the constitutional jurisdiction of Pakistan and its courts, as discussed earlier, while India cannot exercise its constitutional powers, because its out of its control. This ambiguity has grave consequences for the two million indigenous people in terms of justice, basic and human rights’, the statement of BNF chairman said.
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