The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Tuesday appointed the chief justices to the four high courts, a statement issued by the Supreme Court said.
Per the statement, the JCP held four consecutive meetings to make a decision related to the appointments and, by a majority of its total membership in each meeting, opted to allow the acting chief justices to continue serving the top roles.
Letters were subsequently issued to the prime minister’s principal secretary, informing the government about the nominations and requesting the forwarding of the same to the president for their appointment.
The letters said that Justice Sarfraz Dogar was nominated as the new chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), Justice Rozi Khan Barrech as the chief justice for the Balochistan High Court (BHC), Justice Syed Muhammad Attique Shah for the Peshawar High Court, and Justice Junaid Ghaffar for the Sindh High Court (SHC).
President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday had already formally declared Justice Dogar the “senior-most judge” of the IHC, following the issuance of a revised seniority list by the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The development followed a ruling by the Supreme Court on June 19, upholding the constitutionality of transferring three judges from other provincial high courts and referring the matter of seniority determination to the president.
On Friday, five IHC judges had challenged the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the transfer of three judges — Justice Dogar from the LHC, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the SHC, and Justice Muhammad Asif from the BHC.
President Zardari had also declared that the status of the transfer of all three judges would be permanent.