PESHAWAR, July 20: Four additional judges of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) took oath of their offices here on Friday, raising the number of judges in the court to 14, which is still six short of the sanctioned strength of 20.

Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan administered oath to the four judges, including Mrs Justice Irshad Qaiser, Justice Shahjehan Khan Akhundzada, Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani.

Judges of the high court and subordinate judiciary attended the oath-taking ceremony besides members of the bar.

President Asif Ali Zardari had appointed the four judges on July 20. They were recommended for appointment by the Judicial Commission, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The commission’s recommendations were referred to the concerned parliamentary committee, which attained finality as the committee could not meet in the prescribed 14 days.

Two of these judges, Mrs Justice Qaiser and Justice Shahjehan belong to subordinate judiciary, whereas the other two are from the bar. Mrs Justice Qaiser became the second woman judge of the PHC. Earlier, Justice Khalida Rachied was appointed an additional judge in 1994 and subsequently confirmed as permanent judge. After serving for around a decade as judge of the high court Justice Rachied was appointed a judge of International Criminal Court for Rawanda in 2003 and since then she has been serving there.

Mrs Justice Qaiser has worked on several judicial positions in the subordinate judiciary. Before her elevation, she was serving as district and sessions judge, Nowshera. She has also served as judge of accountability court as well as presiding officer of special customs court.

Justice Shahjehan was district and sessions judge, Dera Ismail Khan, and had also served in the same capacity at several other districts, including Peshawar. He was appointed zila qazi in Swat after military operation in 2009.

Justice Roohul Amin was a member of Pakistan Bar Council and also remained deputy attorney general besides serving as secretary general of PHC Bar Association.

Justice Asadullah Chamkani was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general at the time of his appointment. He has also remained the PHCBA president and member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council.

The President of Pakistan had also extended tenure of four other additional judges of the high court on July 18. They include Justice Khalid Mehmood, Justice Nisar Hussain Khan, Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Qaiser Rasheed. They were appointed last year for one year.

Presently, there are five confirmed and nine additional judges of the high court. Apart from the chief justice the four other confirmed judges are: Justice Miftauddin Khan, Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Yahya Afridi.

Superannuation of one of the additional judges, Justice Syed Sajjad Hassan Shah, is due on Aug 19, 2012.