LHC judge steps aside
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani has stepped down from the Lahore High Court on Wednesday. In a letter addressed to Pakistan’s president, he pointed to personal grounds—among them recovery after an operation—and what he called “reasons of conscience.”
He wrote that serving on both the Islamabad High Court and the Lahore High Court had been an honour. He recalled deciding over 23,000 matters of different kinds and said he had tried to protect constitutional rights and decide cases without bias.
Why he says he left
Beyond health, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani argued that reforms under the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments—changes to the Constitution passed by Parliament—had, in his view, damaged the autonomy and standing of the high courts. He said he had seen greater executive sway over courts, including how judges are named and moved between benches, and that this had, in his assessment, weakened public trust that the judiciary can act freely and fairly.
His exit followed soon after a high-court roster change that brought him back to the Rawalpindi wing of the LHC, where he sat alone rather than on a multi-judge panel. He had been moved to the LHC in April and posted at the main Lahore seat. Although ranked among the court’s senior members, he was not placed on any division bench—a panel of two or more judges—there.
Path from Islamabad to Lahore
Earlier, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani was the senior puisne judge at the Islamabad High Court (the judge next in line after the chief justice) and had expected to become that court’s chief justice. Transfers that brought Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar from the LHC—and two other judges from the Sindh and Balochistan high courts—into the IHC led him to contest those inter-court moves.
A Supreme Court constitutional bench—a specialised panel dealing with constitutional questions—kept those transfers in place. Justice Dogar is now chief justice of the IHC. That outcome fed a wider dispute: Justice Kayani and other senior IHC judges asked the Supreme Court to curb the administrative authority used by Chief Justice Dogar. They claimed the office had become a “monocracy” and that judges could be left off the cause list at will.
Once shifted to the LHC, he dropped in rank and stood twelfth on that court’s seniority list. When duties moved him to the Rawalpindi registry, the new roster again gave him only a single-judge sitting, even though he had been the IHC’s second-most senior judge and his challenge to the transfers was still pending.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- April this year: Justice Kayani is moved to the Lahore High Court and posted at the Lahore principal seat.
- After the transfer: He falls to twelfth place on the LHC seniority list and is kept off division benches.
- Supreme Court constitutional bench: Inter-high-court transfers into the IHC, including Justice Dogar’s, are upheld; Dogar becomes IHC chief justice.
- Follow-on litigation: Justice Kayani and other senior IHC judges challenge Chief Justice Dogar’s administrative powers, calling the setup a “monocracy.”
- Recent roster change: He returns to Rawalpindi for a single-bench sitting.
- Wednesday: He resigns, citing health after surgery, conscience, and concern over high-court independence.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Lahore High Court ke judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani ne Wednesday ko istefa de diya hai. Unhone kaha ke sehat aur zameer ki wajah se woh nahi reh sakte, aur unhein andaze ke haal ke courts ki azadi kamzor ho gayi hai. Pehle woh Islamabad High Court mein senior judge thay, baad mein unhein Lahore bheja gaya. Aam shehriyon ke liye yeh is liye ehem hai ke courts ka system unke haqooq aur trust se judta hai.
