Four PHC additional judges take oath of offices

PESHAWAR: Four newly appointed Additional Judges of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) took the oath of their offices on Monday.

PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth administered the oath. The new judges are Justice Sahibzada Asadullah, Justice Ahmad Ali, Justice Naeem Anwar and Justice Waqar Ahmad. The Judicial Commission of Pakistan had recommended five names to Parliamentary Committee for the PHC additional judges. However, one recommended name, Tariq Afridi, was dropped from the list of judges after an objection was raised by the Parliamentary Committee.

The PHC judges, principal staff officers, lawyers, including president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association and law officers attended the oath-taking. Sahibzada Asadullah was born on April 16, 1972, in the Swabi district. He did his matriculation from Peshawar Public School in 1989; FSc from Nisar Shaheed College Risalpur in 1991; BA from Islamia College in 1993 and obtained LLB degree from the Frontier Law College in1999. He started his career as an advocate with a senior lawyer Syed Murad Shah Bacha Swabi in the year 1999 and then shifted to Peshawar in 2002. He got the high court advocate licence in the year 2002 and Supreme Court lawyer licence in 2012.

Before elevation as an additional judge of the high court, he used to take up criminal nature cases. He has experience in constitutional and civil cases as well. Waqar Ahmad belongs to the Mardan district. He did his LLB in 1998 and was appointed as civil judge in 1999. He resigned in 2005. Before elevation as an additional judge of the high court, he was serving as additional advocate general. He got his high court licence in the year 2006 and was appointed additional advocate general in 2013. He has represented the provincial government in several cases. Justice Ahmad Ali hails from the Dera Ismail Khan district and was a senior practising lawyer before assuming his present position. Justice M Naeem Anwar is from the Mansehra district and has remained a practising lawyer.