ISLAMABAD: A serious judicial crisis has hit Islamabad, as the chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court has refused to administer the oath to the judges newly appointed in the FSC by President Asif Ali Zardari against his recommendations.

Federal Shariat Court Chief Justice Agha Rafique Ahmad has written a harsh note to the government for ignoring his recommendations. He said this was against the independence and freedom of the judiciary.

A source told The News that Justice Agha had written to the Law Ministry and asserted that his recommendations for the appointment of judges were required to be honoured, but the government changed them and appointed its choice men as judges without the knowledge of the FSC chief justice.

The source said the FSC chief justice was reluctant to administer the oath to the judges appointed against his recommendations. The source said Justice Agha, who was earlier considered a friend of President Zardari, had shown the kind of reaction that had even shaken many in the government.

In his recommendations, the FSC chief justice forwarded the names of Habibullah Shakir, Roshan Ali Isani and Raja Arshad, former deputy attorney general, for their appointment as judges of the FSC.

However, the president, following the advice of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, dropped the two latter names and replaced them with Ismail Bhutto and Mumtaz Mahfooz and approved them as judges of the FSC.

Habibullah Shakir is from Multan, and has been a diehard PPP activist and personally known to the prime minister. He was also appointed as judge of the LHC by Abdul Hameed Dogar, but was removed following the July 31, 2009 judgment of the apex court.

Ismail Bhutto is from Sindh, a PPP supporter and formerly a judge of the Sindh High Court appointed by Dogar and got removed subsequently because of the July 31 judgment. He was a law officer in the government till recently.

The third judge appointed by President Zardari is Malik Mumtaz Mahfooz from Quetta. In the past, he was a PPP senator. Members of the legal fraternity are of the view that the latest appointments of judges in the FSC is a clear case of the government effort to politicise the institution of the judicia

ry by appointing its choice men instead of professional legal minds and men of integrity. Many members of the legal fraternity smell a rat in the constitutional changes being considered for the appointment of judges and fear that it might be a subtle attack on the independence of the judiciary.