ISLAMABAD, Feb 27 President Asif Ali Zardari appointed on Friday 16 additional judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC), raising its strength to 52.

Seven deputy attorneys-general and five standing counsel were also appointed to represent the federal government in high courts.

The newly-appointed additional judges are Pervez Ali Chawla, Ms Jamila Jahan Noor Aslam, Mohammad Shafqat Khan Abbasi, Mahmood Akhtar Khan, Abdul Sattar Goraya, Habibullah Shakir, Pervez Inayat Malik, Nazir Ahmed Ghazi, Syed Ihtasham Qadir Shah, Anwarul Haq Pannu, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, Imtiaz Rasheed Siddiqui, Chaudhry Naeem Masood, Arshad Mahmood, Irfan Qadir and Jamshed Rahmatullah.

Mr Pervez Ali Chawla belongs to the Punjab Judicial Service. He served as registrar of the LHC. Mohammad Shafqat Abbasi was a member of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and chairman of the council's human rights committee.

Syed Ihtasham Qadir Shah is son of Ehsan Qadir Shah, who was on the panel of counsel of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari served as secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Irfan Qadir served the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as prosecutor-general. He also appeared as the counsel of Tikka Mohammad Iqbal on whose petition the Supreme Court validated the Nov 3, 2007, emergency proclamation.

The new DAGs and standing counsel are Khan Dil Mohammad Khan Alizai (DAG) and Ms Robina Saeed (standing counsel) for Islamabad and Ms Yasmin Sehgal, Abdul Razzaq Raja and Syed Iqbal Hussain Shah Gillani as DAGs and Chaudhry Mohammad Jehanzeb Wahla for Lahore.

In Karachi, Nazar Akbar, Mian Khan Malik, Syed Ashiq Raza will appear on behalf of the federal government as DAGs and Syed Ahmed Ali Shah, Shahab Sarki and Rizwan Ali Dodani will represent the federal government as standing counsel.

Meanwhile, Sardar Ghazi has been removed from the post of DAG. He was recently appointed by prosecutor to conduct the trial of the suspects arrested from Pakistan in connection with the Mumbai attack.

Sardar Ghazi was appointed DAG when Malik Mohammad Qayyum was the attorney- general.