PESHAWAR, Sept 15 The lawyers on Tuesday expressed reservations over the recent appointment of three additional judges of Peshawar High Court and decided to convey their grievances to the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

A general body meeting of Peshawar High Court Bar Association, also attended by office-bearers of other bar associations of the province, decided to constitute a coordination committee to hold meeting with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and request him to redress their grievances.

Through a unanimously adopted resolution the meeting resolved that they had reservations over the appointment of three of the seven recently appointed judges -- Justice Pir Liaqat Ali Shah, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mohammad Safdar Khan Sikandari -- as they were not competent enough to become judges of the high court.

The committee is consisted of PHCBA president Syed Attique Shah as its chairman, presidents of the PHCBAs at the circuit benches in Dera Ismail Khan and Abbottabad and presidents of all major bar associations situated in the divisional headquarters.

The lawyers said that they did not want any confrontation with the judiciary and their only objective was that the sacrifices rendered by them during the last two years should not go down the drain.

The meeting was addressed by Syed Attique Shah, former president of PHCBA Abdul Lateef Afridi, secretary general Mohammad Essa Khan, president of PHCBA Abbottabad circuit bench Shad Mohammad, presidents of Bannu, Mardan, Haripur, Charsadda and Lower Dir bar associations, Wali Ayaz Khan, Iqbal Hoti, Abdur Rauf, Hidayatullah Khan and Abdul Hassan Khan respectively.

The meeting also called upon the provincial government to fully implement the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation, 2009, in Malakand region.

They also demanded of the Pakistan Bar Council to relax the clearing of dues for the lawyers of NWFP in the forthcoming elections of NWFP Bar Council. The speakers said that the outstanding dues should be waived off for the lawyers of Malakand as due to conflict they were not in a position to pay the dues.