PESHAWAR: Two additional judges of the Peshawar High Court on Friday took oath of their offices increasing the number of judges to 16 against the court’s strength of 20.

PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel administered the oath to the two, including Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim.

Additional registrar Tariq Sohail read out the presidential notification regarding the appointment of the two judges for a period of one year. The ceremony was attended by judges of the high court, judicial officers and members of the bar including office-bearers of the PHC Bar Association and Peshawar District Bar Association.

Justice Mohammad Ibrahim, a member of the judicial service, was born in Swabi district on April 15, 1962.

He had started his judicial career in 1993 as additional district and sessions judge. He later performed as additional district and sessions judge in Peshawar, Haripur, Kohat, Charsadda, Mansehra and other cities.

Before his elevation to the bench, he was serving as district and sessions judge at Mardan.

Justice Ibrahim had also served in different special courts including anti-terrorism court at Peshawar and Mardan, accountability court in Peshawar and labour court Haripur.

He was the administrative judge of accountability courts in Peshawar.

Justice Ibrahim was born on Dec 2, 1969, in Khazana village of Peshawar. He is an advocate of the Supreme Court and had remained the president, secretary general and joint secretary of the PHC Bar Association.

Justice Ibrahim had also served as an assistant advocate general from 1999 to 2000 and as additional advocate general from 2008 to 2010.

He did his graduation from Government College Peshawar and got his law degree from University of Peshawar in 1992. He was enrolled as an advocate in 1993, that of the high court in 1995 and subsequently of the Supreme Court in 2008.

Justice Ibrahim was considered a specialist in criminal law and had also appeared in different nature of cases when he was in the advocate general office.

He was an active member of the bar and was in the forefront of the lawyers’ movement. During that movement, he was also arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance for a period of one month.

With these elevations, 16 judges have been performing in the high court including six additional judges and 10 confirmed judges.

Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel is the most senior high court chief justice in the country.

Appointed to the post in April 2014, he is slated to retire in July 2019.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2016