PESHAWAR, March 5: The number of vacancies in the Peshawar High Court will rise to four on Monday when Justice Shahzad Akber Khan retires from the bench, sources said here on Sunday.

For almost a year now the high court has been functioning with 12 judges, including Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan, against its sanctioned strength of 15, the sources said.

Justice Shehzad Akber was appointed additional judge of the high court on April 21, 1999, and was confirmed as a judge of the high court on April 20, 2000.

Before his elevation, Justice Shehzad Akber had served as deputy attorney general of Pakistan. He had also remained vice president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association and president of Peshawar District Bar Association.

After the chief justice and Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai, Justice Shehzad is the senior most judge of the high court.

Legal circles expressed concern over the delay in filling the vacant posts and said that this practice had been affecting the functioning of the court.

A lawyer of the high court said that the delay in the elevation of judges to the high court was in violation of the famous judgment of the Supreme Court in the Judges or Al-Jihad Trust case.

He stated that in the said judgment, delivered a decade back in March 1996, the superior court had clearly pronounced that permanent vacancies should be filled up within 30 days of its occurrence.

The said judgment states: “The permanent vacancies occurring in the office of the chief justice and judges normally should be filled in immediately not later than 30 days but a vacancy occurring before the due date on account of death or for any other reasons, should be filled within 90 days on permanent basis.”

The vacancies rose to three last April when the then high court’s Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk was elevated to the Supreme Court and another judge, Justice Malik Hamid Saeed attained superannuation. The three seats have been vacant for almost a year.

The present Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan will attain superannuation on Feb 14, 2010, whereas Justice Shahjehan will retire on April 2, 2012.

The present serving judges of the high court are: Justice Tariq Pervez, Justice Shahjehan Khan, Justice Shehzad Akber Khan, Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi, Justice Ijazul Hassan, Justice Muhammad Qaim Jan Khan, Justice Ijaz Afzal, Justice Fazalur Rehman, Justice Dost Muhammad, Justice Saleem Khan, Justice Muhammad Raza Khan and Justice Jehnazeb Raheem.