PESHAWAR, Aug 10: Following a controversy of the Peshawar High Court remaining without a chief justice for more than a day, Mr Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai was appointed as acting chief justice of the PHC by the President on Friday.

Mr Justice Yousafzai took oath as acting chief justice here at the high court building at 11.00a.m. Justice Dost Muhammad Khan of the PHC administered the oath.

PHC Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan was appointed acting governor on Wednesday as NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai is in Afghanistan to participate in the Pakistan-Afghanistan peace jirga.

No legal proceedings have taken place on Thursday and even on Friday no case was heard before the oath taking of Justice Yousafzai.

The cause lists of cases, fixed before two single benches on Friday, carried the words “subject to notification of the acting chief justice.”

Normally, the federal law department simultaneously issues notification for the appointment of acting chief justice when the chief justice is appointed as acting governor. But this time the government failed to issue the required notification.