Justice Sarfaraz heads bench usually assigned to incoming CJ of high court
The Islamabad High Court has reconsidered the benches it had constituted earlier for the week starting from today (Monday) and included three new judges recently transferred from the LHC, SHC and the BHC to the IHC. President Asif Ali Zardari a day earlier transferred Justice Sarfraz Dogar from the LHC, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the SHC and Justice Muhammad Asif from the Balochistan High Court to the IHC under Article 200 of the Constitution.
Interestingly, the IHC registrar’s office issued the new roster on an off-day (Sunday) to announce the new division benches according to the new seniority of each judge and spent a busy day preparing the new courtrooms for three new judges. Now with a total of 13 judges on duty, the court will have six division benches and 13 single benches available from February 3 to February 7.
The sitting IHC CJ, Aamer Farooq, is the most senior chief justice and is likely to be elevated to the Supreme Court. The JCP has also convened a meeting to consider high court judges for eight vacancies in the apex court. The second division bench will include both newly transferred judges, Justice Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro
The third division bench will feature Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Sardar Ijaz Eshaq Khan. The fourth division bench will include Justice Mian Gul Hassan Orakzai and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, though Justice Saman will not be available on February 7. The fifth division bench will comprise Justice Tariq Jahangiri and Justice Azam Khan, while the sixth division bench will feature Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir.
A special division bench and a larger bench will also be available on the instructions of the Chief Justice. The Deputy Registrar Judicial, with the approval of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, has officially released the duty roster. Justice Sarfraz Dogar has been assigned to Single Bench 2, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani to Single Bench 3, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro, transferred from the SHC, to Single Bench 9, and Justice Muhammad Asif, transferred from the BHC, to Single Bench 12.
