• Commission grants six-month extension to one ad hoc judge; another denied confirmation
• PTI representatives skip meeting yet again

ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), during its fifth session on Thursday, presided over by its chairman, Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, recommended the confirmation of 11 additional judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) as permanent judges out of 13.

Even though the commission granted an extension of six months to another additional judge, it declined to approve the confirmation of one judge on the list.

The session was held at the Conference Room of the Supreme Court building to make recommendations for the confirmation of additional judges as permanent judges.

According to a statement issued by the SC, “the commission recommended, by majority of its total membership, the confirmation of the additional judges after due consideration of the relevant data form, antecedents, and evaluation of material placed before it”.

Those confirmed are: Justices Hassan Nawaz Makhdoom, Malik Waqar Haider Awan, Sardar Akbar Ali Syed Ahsan Raza Kazmi, Malik Javid Iqbal Wains, Muhammad Jawad Zafar, Khalid Ishaq, Malik Muhammad Awais Khalid, Chau­dhry Sultan Mahmood, Tanveer Ahmad Sheikh, and woman judge, Justice Abher Gul Khan.

Similarly, the commission, by a majority of its total membership, recommended an extension of the term of Justice Tariq Mahmood Bajwa for six months, while Justice Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan was not confirmed. As a result, Justice Khan will lose his office as an additional judge of the LHC.

PTI absent

As usual, PTI representatives, namely Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, did not attend Thursday’s meeting.

They had also skipped the JCP meeting held on Wednesday to recommend the confirmation of six additional judges of the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

In total, the commission, in separate meetings, took up 40 additio­nal judges of different high courts, out of which it recommended the confirmation of 31 additional judges as permanent judges.

These included 11 from the LHC, 10 from the Sindh High Court, six from the PHC, three from the Islamabad High Court, and one from the Balochistan High Court.

Likewise, the JCP extended the terms of seven additional judges of different high courts for another six months, including four from the PHC, two from the SHC, and one from the LHC.

However, during its sessions, the commission did not approve the confirmation of two additional judges — one each from the LHC and BHC. As a result, the two jud­ges will no longer serve as judges of their respective high courts.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2026