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PESHAWAR A total of seven judges took oath as Additional Judges of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday, sparking a negative reaction among the former PHC bar members.
According to a DawnNews report, among the newly appointed judges who took oath in the presence of Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court Justice Tariq Pervez, four belong to the lawyers' community, while three of them are from the subordinate judiciary. Those from the judiciary include one district and sessions judge and two judges have been appointed from the Banking Court.
With these fresh appointments, positions in banking courts of the city have become vacant.
The court is, however, still short of nine judges and the number is expected to rise as two judges from the existing strength will soon be appointed at Darul Qaza in the Malakand division.
Most members from the lawyers' community have expressed their reservation with the move, saying that the judges should have been appointed from amongst the lawyers and given sufficient representation in the present set up.
'Our demand was and it is still that judges should be appointed from the bar because have a vast experience of dealing with various cases as opposed to those judges from the service,' Latif Afridi, Former President PHC Bar, said.
But the Advocate General NWFP says courts are independent and appointments have been made in a transparent manner. 'This induction has proved that the advocates had no personal interests rather their efforts were for the restoration of independent judiciary,' remarked Ziaud Din, Advocate General NWFP.
But the lawyers appeared discontent and resented the fact that none of the active members of the lawyers' movement - launched in June 2008 - were offered a position as a judge in the PHC.
They further demanded that the remaining judges should be appointed from amongst the lawyers, despite the fact that 10 out of 14 judges in Peshawar High Court are from the bar. -DawnNews
