ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: A parliamentary committee approved on Thursday the appointment of two senior judges as chief justices of the Lahore and Peshawar High Courts and three of the four names recommended by the judicial commission for elevation to the Supreme Court.

However, the committee for appointment of superior court judges deferred its decision about one judge.

The names of outgoing Chief Justice of LHC, Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, PHC Chief Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan and Justice Gulzar Ahmed of the Sindh High Court were cleared to fill three of the four vacant posts in the Supreme Court.

The judicial commission headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had unanimously recommended on Oct 27 the three judges and Justice (retd) Mohammad Athar Saeed of the SHC for the Supreme Court.

The parliamentary committee headed by Senator Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari deferred the decision about Justice Saeed.

Over the past months, Justice Ghulam Rabbani retired as an ad hoc judge of the apex court and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, senior judge Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui on reaching the age of superannuation.

The committee cleared the names of Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed to head the PHC and LHC.

It approved the names of Advocate Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui from Punjab, Advocate Azeem Afridi from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Advocate Noorul Haq Qureshi from Sindh for appointment as additional judges of the Islamabad High Court.

Additional judges Mohammad Anwar Khan Kassi and Riaz Ahmed Khan will be made permanent judges of the IHC.

After the appointments, six of the seven posts of judges in the IHC will be filled.