ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Friday established his first contact with the presidency since being restored in office on July 20 when he called in the President’s Chief of Staff Hamid Javed to discuss judicial matters.

“The CJ called the CoS in his chamber on Friday to discuss matters relating to filling vacancies in different high courts,” Supreme Court Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain told Dawn.

The confirmation of a few and elevation of some other judges to fill vacant seats in the high courts of Sindh, Punjab and the NWFP were being delayed, because of which work in the superior judiciary was being adversely affected with an increasing backlog, the registrar said.

He brushed aside the impression that matters relating to pending petitions challenging retention of dual offices by President Pervez Musharraf had been discussed in the meeting that lasted for half an hour.

During a recent meeting of the National Judiciary Policy Making Committee, the chief justices of different high courts had drawn the attention of Justice Chaudhry towards the state of affairs. Different bar associations had also called for filling the vacancies of judges in the high courts.

“In the Lahore High Court, 18 of 50 seats of judges are vacant, while in the Sindh High Court 12 seats are vacant out of 28,” former Supreme Court Bar Association president Tariq Mehmood observed. In the Balochistan High Court, four of nine seats had been vacant for quite some time, he said.

Following Friday’s meeting, President Pervez Musharraf appointed six additional judges in the SHC on Saturday — Justice Arshad Siraj, Justice Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi, Justice Abdul Rehman Farooq Pirzada, Justice Abdul Rasheed Kalwar, Justice Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani and Justice Salman Ansari.

Former Supreme Court judge Mian Mohammad Ajmal was made Principal Secretary to the Law Ministry.

Justice M. Javed Buttar of the Supreme Court was appointed Chairman of the Central Zakat Council for three years.