KARACHI, Aug 20: The Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court has not accepted the resignation of six judges who had quit in protest against making Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry non-functional.

Sources told Dawn on Monday that the SHC Chief Justice did not accept the resignations of Ashraf Yar Khan, assistant district and sessions judge, Karachi East; Allah Bachayo Gabol, civil judge, Karachi East; Asad Ullah Shah Rashidi, civil judge, Karachi Central; Mustafa Safavi, civil judge, Karachi East; Rajesh Chander Rajput, civil judge, Ghotki; and Irum Jahangir, civil judge, Shikarpur; and reinstated them with immediate effect.

The sources said 26 judges in Sindh had decided to resign in the wake of the action taken by President Gen Pervez Musharraf against Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. However, 20 of them had later changed their mind.

They recalled that a meeting of judicial officers had been called on March 19 by a district and sessions judge in Karachi to discuss en bloc resignation by sub-ordinate judicial officers. However, the judge who had issued a circular for the meeting cancelled it at the eleventh hour for unspecified reasons.