PESHAWAR, March 1: Additional judge of the Peshawar High Court Khalid Mehmood on Thursday retired after attaining the age of superannuation, putting the court’s strength to 11 against the sanctioned one of 20.

Last month, senior judge of the court Miftauddin had retired.

Justice Mehmood, who was born in Mardan on March 1, 1951, was elevated as the additional judge of the high court on July 28, 2011.

Before becoming a judge, he was a practicing lawyer, who got himself enrolled as an advocate of high court in 1981 and an advocate of the Supreme Court in 2011. Justice (r) Mehmood had also served as elected member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council from 2004 to 2010.

After his retirement, PHC has 11 judges, including four confirmed ones and seven additional ones.

Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan was appointed to the post in Nov 2011 and his retirement is due in 2015, while Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk is the senior puisne judge, who will attain superannuation in March 2014.

The two other confirmed judges are Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Yahya Afridi. All the four confirmed judges are from the bar and not from the judicial service.

The seven additional judges of the court are Justice Nisar Hussain Khan, Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, Justice Qaiser Rasheed, Justice Asadullah Chamkani, Justice Irshad Qaiser, Justice Shahjehan Akhundzada and Justice Roohul Amin. Among them, only Justice Irshad Qaiser and Justice Shahjehan are from the services and at the time of their elevation, they were serving as district and sessions judges.

Due to shortage of judges, the high court has been facing problems in disposal of growing number of cases as currently, apart from the principal seat at Peshawar, judges have also to function at the four circuit benches at Abbottabad, Dera Ismail Khan, Mingora (Darul Qaza) and Bannu.

Keeping in view the normal practice if seven judges perform at the circuit benches, only four are left in the principal seat here.

Along with the routine cases, the high court has presently been looking after a large number of cases pertaining to missing persons, law and order situation, environment, health, education and communication. The court had taken suo motu notice of them.On several occasions, the Peshawar High Court Bar Association expressed concern over the vacancies in the superior courts, especially PHC.

In June last year, the association had urged the judicial commission for appointment of judges to fill vacancies at the earliest.

At that time, nine judges were serving at PHC and later on, four additional judges were appointed.

In November last year, PHCBA again expressed concern over the delay in appointment of judges.

Its president, Abdul Lateef Afridi, had stated that there were vacancies in all the high courts of the country due to which the backlog of cases was on the rise.

During the reference held for the outgoing judge, Miftauddin Khan, on Feb 11, PHCBA secretary general Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah had pointed out the vacancies in the high court and had requested that they should be filled at the earliest.