PESHAWAR: Three new additional judges of the Peshawar High Court took oath of their offices on Friday.The swearing-in of Justice Mohammad Nasir Mahfooz, Justice Shakil Ahmad and Justice Syed Arshad Ali took the court to full strength of 20.

PHC Chief Justice Yahya Afridi administered the oath to the new judges, who were recently appointed by the country’s president for one year on the recommendation of the Judicial Commission for Appointment of Judges and Parliamentary Committee for Judges Appointment.

Registrar of the court Saleem Khan read out the appointment notification.

The oath-taking ceremony was attended by the high court judges, KP advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai, other law officers, PHC Bar Association president Arbab Usman, Peshawar District Bar Association president Fazal Wahid and office-bearers, and lawyers.

After these appointments, the high court now has 11 permanent and nine additional judges.

The three new judges were elevated from the bar. They were noted lawyers.

Justice Mohammad Nasir Mahfooz was born in Peshawar on July 7, 1959.

Son of prominent lawyer late Mahfooz Khan, he remained visiting lecturer at the Frontier Law College, Peshawar, and Centre of Legal Studies, Peshawar.

He had done his LLB from Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar, and was enrolled as an advocate on March 6, 1985. Afterwards, he was enrolled as a judge of the high court on Feb 25, 1993, and as an advocate of Supreme Court on July 12, 2003.

He had also served as civil judge from July 1986 to Dec 1992 and had resigned from that post and began legal practice.

Justice Syed Arshid Ali belongs to Swabi district. Born on Apr 10, 1971, he did his LLB from Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar, in 1993 and was enrolled to practice at the high court in 1996.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the Supreme Court in 2012.

Justice Arshad Ali had worked as senior associate in a prestigious law firm, Afridi, Shah and Minallah, Peshawar, from 1996 to 2007.

Later on, he started his own firm, Syed Arshad Ali and Associates, Peshawar.

He appeared in several important cases before the superior courts and conducted numerous accountability trials before the accountability courts.

He also represented different statutory bodies before the superior courts including banks, hospitals and universities.

As for Justice Shakil Ahmad, he belongs to Peshawar. He served as legal adviser to different government and private entities including hospitals. He was considered well versed in services and labour laws as well as constitutional matters.

He had conducted cases before the superior courts as well as services tribunal, labour courts and National Industrial Relations Commission.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2017