ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Wednesday recommended confirmation of 11 of the 13 additional judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC), after detailed deliberations.

As the JCP dropped further consideration on two of the judges, Justice Sohail Nasir and Justice Mohammad Shan Gul would have to step down.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, the approval for the confirmation of 11 judges were made with consensus during over-two-hour-long session in which credentials of all the additional judges were considered threadbare one by one.

The additional judges who have been recommended for confirmation are: Justice Shakil Ahmad, Justice Safdar Saleem Shahid, Justice Ahmad Nadeem Arshad, Justice Mohammad Tariq Nadeem, Justice Mohammad Amjad Rafiq, Justice Abid Hussain Chattha, Justice Anwar Hussain, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa, Justice Sultan Tanvir Ahmad, Justice Muhammad Raza Qureshi and Justice Raheel Kamran Sheikh.

Commission drops further consideration on names of Justice Nasir, Justice Shan

The names of these judges were approved by the JCP as the additional judges of the LHC on May 3, 2021 and President Arif Alvi later on May 6 appointed them as additional judges of the high court.

Before the JCP session, the judges of the commission met for almost two hours and went through the judgments rendered by the high court additional judges.

An informed source told Dawn that earlier the names of four judges namely Justice Nasir, Justice Gul, Justice Chattha and Justice Bajwa were opposed for confirmation but in the end, the commission decided to drop the names of only two of them with consensus.

The meeting, however, was conducted smoothly in a cordial manner though it took time in reaching final decision. The meeting was also attended by Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf who already had tendered his resignation twice but was told by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to continue serving the coveted post until the nominee to replace him from Lahore was decided.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2022