The two newly appointed Judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday formally sworn in; the Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah took the oath from both judges.
The oath taking ceremony was held here at IHC premises. The two lawyers Babar Sattar and Tariq Mehmood Jahangir have been approved by Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) initially for the period of one year.
The CJP was headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed. The JCP recommended the appointment to be held a couple of weeks back. Besides chief justice, the meeting participants were senior most judges of the apex court and senior most judges of the Islamabad High Court, law minister, attorney general, members of the Pakistan Bar Council and Islamabad Bar Council.
Last month, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah proposed the names of Babar Sattar and Tariq Jahangiri for the two positions.
Prior to the JCP meeting two sub-committees, one headed by senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court Justice Mushir Alam and IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and the other comprising apex court judge Umar Ata Bandial, IHC’s Justice Aamer Farooq, Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan and Vice Chairman of the Islamabad Bar Council Qazi Rafiuddin Babar also had examined the credentials and professional skills of the candidates.
Babar Sattar has studied Master of Law (LLM) at the Harvard School of Law. He is also a writer, columnist and analyst.
Tariq Jahangiri, a former advocate general for Islamabad, is an expert in criminal, constitutional and civil laws. He was elected as president of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association in 2016. Previously, he was president of the District Bar Association of Islamabad.
The JCP has referred the recommendations to the Parliamentary Committee on Judges Appointments. On November 21, the JCP had deferred the confirmation of three additional judges of IHC. They were given an extension for six months.
In November last year, the JCP recommended the appointment of three lawyers as additional judges, and the nominations were unanimously confirmed by the parliamentary committee on December 4.
Currently, there are four confirmed judges included as Chief Justice Athar Minallah, Senior Puisne Judge Aamer Farooq, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb at the IHC in addition to five additional judges. News desk
