September 15, 2005	Thursday	Sha'aban 10, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: Five judges were sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court here on Wednesday at a simple ceremony. Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry administered oath to three judges elevated to the Supreme Court from the Balochistan High Court (BHC) and the Lahore High Court (LHC) and two retired judges as ad-hoc judges.

The three judges who have been elevated as judges of the Supreme Court are Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, former chief justice of BHC, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Syed Jamshed Ali of the LHC.

Similarly, Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, who retired as judge of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, and Justice (retd) Karamat Nazir Bhandari were made ad-hoc judges of the apex court for a period of one year.

After the oath of new judges, the strength of the Supreme Court has reached 19, (17 sanctioned strength plus two ad-hoc judges).

Legal experts believe that two ad-hoc judges have been appointed in view of the huge backlog of over 30,000 cases in the Supreme Court.

The oath-taking ceremony was also attended by the Chief Justice of the Federal Shariat Court, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister, Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan, vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council Abdul Hafiz Ansari, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Qazi Jameel, advocates-general, director-general of the Federal Judicial Academy, members of the bar and officers of the apex court and the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, an official source told Dawn that the law ministry had submitted for approval of President Pervez Musharraf two summaries for the appointment of judges both in the Lahore High Court (LHC) and the Sindh High Court (SHC).

He said the chief justice of the SHC had suggested to Governor Sindh Isharatul Ibad the names of 15 persons to fill 10 vacant seats in SHC. Of the 15, the governor recommended the names of nine persons to be appointed as judges of the SHC.

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