Islamabad: Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqir has resigned from accepting the post of ad hoc judge in the Supreme Court due to personal reasons. The Supreme Court is considering the appointment of retired judges to decide over 54,000 pending cases. The JCP, which appoints judges to the high courts, will meet on Friday (tomorrow) to consider the appointment of four retired judges as ad hoc members of the court.However, Justice (R) Maqbool Baqir has resigned from accepting the post of ad hoc judge. He said that the appointment of ad hoc judges is in accordance with the constitution and any objection to it is unjustified.He said he was declining the post due to personal reasons and his busy schedule. Meanwhile, PTI Secretary General Umar Ayub Khan termed the appointment of ad hoc judges by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faiz Isa as nothing but a ‘trick’. He urged the nominated judges to reject the offer or the nation would remember them as ‘rubber stamps’. Turning it into an individual’s "personal court”, gaining an artificial numerical advantage, in the hope that principled and righteous judges will reject the offer and not be part of a plan to destroy the judiciary.
