New appointments: SHC gets four more judges

Strength increases to 37 with new inductions

KARACHI: Four additional judges took oath on Wednesday at the Sindh High Court (SHC), raising its strength to 37.

The oath was administered by SHC Chief Justice (CJ) Sajjad Ali Shah at a ceremony held on SHC premises.

CJ Shah had recommended the names of district and sessions judge Rasheed Ahmed Soomro, Advocate Arshed Hussain Khan, Advocate Masood Khan, Advocate Saleem Jessar, Advocate Abdul Hamid Barakzai, Advocate Hamayoon Khan and Advocate Sarfaraz Akhund for appointment as additional judges of the SHC for one year.

The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), headed by Pakistan Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, however, at a meeting held earlier this month, approved the appointment of four nominees out of the seven forwarded by SHC CJ Shah.

The newly appointed judges include one district and sessions judge- Rasheed Ahmed Soomro and three lawyers- Advocates Muhammad Humayoon Khan, Arshad Hussain Khan and Saleem Jessar.

With the induction of four new judges the strength of judges at the SHC is now 37.

However, it is still short of three judges as the total sanctioned strength is 40.

Meanwhile, SHC's nine additional judges, who were appointed on October 30, 2015, for one year, may retire by the end of October this year if they are not confirmed or given an extension for another year.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2016.