President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday approved the confirmation of a total of 27 additional judges of the Sindh, Lahore, and Peshawar high courts.
According to a statement issued on Thursday by the president’s secretariat, the approval was given in accordance with the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP).
For the Sindh High Court (SHC), the statement said the president had approved the confirmation of all 10 additional judges recommended by the JCP: Justices Miran Muhammad Shah, Tasneem Sultana, Riazat Ali Sahar, Muhammad Hasan, Abdul Hamid Bhurgi, Jan Ali Junejo, Nisar Ahmed Bhanbhro, Ali Haider ‘Ada’, Muhammad Osman Ali Hadi and Muhammad Jaffer Raza.
President Zardari also approved a six-month extension in the tenures of Justices Khalid Hussain Shahani and Syed Faizul Hassan Shah of the SHC, the statement added.
For the Lahore High Court (LHC), President Zardari confirmed all 11 additional judges recommended by the JCP as permanent judges, namely Justices Hassan Nawaz Makhdoom, Malik Waqar Haider Awan, Sardar Akbar Ali, Syed Ahsan Raza Kazmi, Malik Javed Iqbal Wains, Muhammad Jawad Zafar, Khalid Ishaq, Malik Muhammad Awais Khalid, Chaudhry Sultan Mahmood, Tanveer Ahmad Sheikh and Abher Gul Khan.
The president further approved a six-month extension in the tenure of Justice Tariq Mahmood Bajwa as an additional LHC judge, according to the statement.
Finally, for the Peshawar High Court (PHC), he approved the confirmation of the following six additional judges: Justices Muhammad Tariq Afridi, Abdul Fayaz, Salahuddin, Sadiq Ali, Syed Mudasser Ameer and Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah.
He also approved a six-month extension in the tenure of Justices Farah Jamshed, Inamullah Khan, Sabitullah Khan and Aurangzeb as PHC’s additional judges.
“The approvals have been made on the advice of the prime minister,” the statement added.
Last week, over multiple days of meetings presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, the JCP had recommended making additional judges of multiple high courts permanent. It had approved three of the Islamabad High Court, 10 of the SHC, 11 of the LHC, six of the PHC and one of the Balochistan High Court.
By a majority of its total membership, the JCP had recommended the confirmations after due consideration of the relevant data forms, antecedents and evaluation of material placed before it.
Subsequently, the federal government had notified the appointment of IHC’s Justices Muhammad Azam Khan, Muhammad Asif and Raja Inaam Ameen Minhas as permanent judges, with them taking oath on Monday.