ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: The federal government has notified that 24 judges of the High Courts of Sindh, Punjab and NWFP have ceased to hold office with effect from November 3, the day emergency was proclaimed in the country.

Separate notifications dated December 3 were issued on Tuesday by the Law, Justice and Human Rights Division.

According to the notification regarding Sindh High Court, 12 judges who ceased to hold office are Justices Rahmat Hussain Jafferi, Khilji Arif Hussain, Aamir Hani Muslim, Gulzar Ahmed, Maqbool Baqar, Muhammad Athar Saeed, Faisal Arab, Sajjad Ali Shah, Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, Salman Ansari, Abdul Rashid Kalwar and Arshad Siraj.

In Punjab, 10 judges of the Lahore High Court who ceased to hold office are Justices Khawja Muhammad Sharif, Mian Saqib Nisar, Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Muhammad Tahir Ali, Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, M. A. Shahid Siddiqui, Muhammad Jehangir Arshad, Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Umar Atta Bandial and Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman.

In NWFP, two judges of the Peshawar High Court ceased to hold office. They are Justices Ijaz Afzal Khan and Dost Muhammad Khan.

The identical notifications said the judges ceased to hold office “in pursuance to Article 3 of the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007 (Order No. 1 of 2007)”.—APP