Four newly-appointed additional judges of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) including a woman took oath of their office here on Friday.
Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court, Dost Mohammad Khan, administered oath to the judges including Justice Ms Irshad Qaisar, Justice Shahjehan Akhundzada, Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani and Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani at a simple ceremony held at Court Number 1 of PHC.
After the appointment of four new judges the strength of the PHC judges rose to 14. The sanctioned strength of the PHC is 20. An in-charge of the National Judicial Policy Making Committee, Farhatullah read out notification issued by the Law Ministry about the appointment of the four new additional judges. He stated that the government appointed the judges under Article 197 of the Constitution for one year from July 19, 2012.
PHC judges, registrar Subhan Sher, secretary general PHCBA Qazi Jawad Ihsanullah Qureshi and a large number of lawyers attended the oath-taking ceremony. Justice Irshad Qaisar is the second woman judge of the PHC. Earlier Justice Khalida Rachid was appointed the PHC judge. She was later appointed president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Justice Irshad Qaisar is from the Peshawar district. She was first appointed civil judge and also remained Customs Judge and a judge of the Accountability Court. Until now, she was serving as District and Sessions Judge in Nowshera.
Justice Shahjehan Akhundzada also belongs to Swabi district. He was initially appointed as Additional Sessions Judge and also remained Zila Qazi of Swat. Before his appointment as PHC judge, he was serving as District and Sessions Judge at Dera Ismail Khan.
The other two new judges, Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani and Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani, were known lawyers. The former belongs to Chamakani village in Peshawar district. He got his LLB in 1977 and was enrolled as advocate PHC in 1979 and advocate of Supreme Court in 1993.
He remained president and secretary general of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) and also member of NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Bar Council from 1993 to 1998.
He also served as member enrolment committee and member Finance and Privileges Committee from 1999 to 2003. Before his appointment as PHC judge, he was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General. The lawyers said Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani was an expert lawyer in the criminal cases.
Justice Roohul Amin Chamkani os also from Chamkani village. Born in 1962, he got his BA degree from Government College Pubbi in Nowshera district and BA from Government College Peshawar. He did his LLB from University of Peshawar. He also remained a member of Pakistan Bar Council and Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Bar Council.
