Chief Magistrate Ajmal Khan has been reappointed under the new legal order announced by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo following the abrogation of the 1997 Constitution, according to Fiji Live.
Khan was chief magistrate prior to all judicial appointments being revoked after the abrogation.
A resident magistrate for 11 years and having previously acted in the post of chief magistrate, Khan was first appointed chief magistrate last month, just weeks before Fiji’s judiciary was sacked.
Khan was sworn-in at Government House.
Other reappointments include that of Salesi Temo, Maika Nakora, Anare Tuilevuka, Alofa Seruvatu, Mohammed Nazeem ud-Dean Sahu Khan and Anjala Wati as resident magistrates.
Two new appointments to the position of resident magistrate include John Rabuku and Nadi lawyer Faizal Khan, the son of former Fiji opposition leader Siddiq Koya
Fiji Times reports a chief justice has yet to be appointed and no appointments have been made to the superior courts, namely the High Court, the Appeals Court and the Supreme Court.
The only earlier appointments were of lawyers Ana Rokomokoti as Chief Registrar and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum as the attorney general.
The director of public prosecutions and the solicitor-general have also yet to be appointed.
Meanwhile, Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has claimed his new “legal order” is the future of the island nation, according to Stuff NZ.
In an extraordinary speech to civil servants, he said that with the abrogation of the Constitution “a new legal order has been created.”
In speech notes provided by his office, he said: “A new legal order means there is no longer the old. There is no need to speculate as to what happened, how it happened, what should have happened or what should not have happened. What is, is now, and the future.”
He said his government is not an interim one or a caretaker one — it is in office until Sept. 2014.
Bainimarama told a gathering of civil servants that there was “down-right abuse” in the civil service.
He would clean it up.
“As a first up, from next week, all government vehicles being driven after hours will need to carry permits.”
Police and soldiers would check government vehicles, he said.
