JCP greenlights 10 additional judges for Peshawar High Court

Islamabad: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan has approved the appointment of 10 additional judges to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) with a majority vote.

The decision was made during a meeting led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi on Saturday. Among the appointed judges are Farah Jamshed and Inamullah Khan, both district and sessions judges.

Out of the 40 nominees considered, PHC Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim proposed seven of the appointments, while one each was suggested by Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Senator Farooq H Naek, and Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) representative Akhtar Hussain.

Initially, the commission’s agenda only included the appointment of nine judges, but PHC CJ Justice Ibrahim argued that 10 judges were needed to address the court’s increasing workload. CJP Afridi supported this view, leading to the selection of 10 judges instead of nine. However, three commission members opposed the change in the agenda, stating that the original plan to appoint nine judges should be followed, as it was decided on January 18. They warned that deviating from the plan could cause future problems in judicial appointments.

The newly appointed judges include Muhammad Tariq Afridi, Abdul Fayyaz, Sabitullah Khan, Salahuddin, Sadiq Ali, Syed Mudasser Ameer, Aurangzeb, and Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah. The commission clarified that judges who did not receive enough votes might be considered for future appointments.

With these new appointments, the number of judges in the Peshawar High Court will increase to 23, up from the current 13. This expansion is expected to help clear the backlog of over 40,000 pending cases. The commission will meet again on February 10 to discuss the appointment of eight new judges to the Supreme Court.