Four PHC Judges Stop Functioning as President Delays Confirmation

Four additional judges of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) have ceased to function after the President of Pakistan delayed his assent to the confirmation of their services. The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) had recommended their confirmation, but the presidential approval is still awaited.

Justices Farah Jamshed, Inamullah Khan, Sabitullah Khan, and Aurangzeb were initially appointed as additional judges for one year, taking their oath on February 4, 2025. Their terms were extended for six months earlier this year, which concluded on August 4, 2026. The JCP had recommended their permanent confirmation on July 20, 2026, under Article 175(A) of the Constitution.

Official sources indicate that the PHC is in contact with the law ministry regarding the situation. No new cases have been assigned to these four judges since August 3, as judicial work cannot be assigned without the relevant government notification. The PHC Bar Association president has urged the President to approve the recommendations, citing constitutional provisions that bind the President to assent to such summaries.

A petition has been filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) requesting it to direct President Asif Ali Zardari to approve the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s (JCP) recommendations for the appointment of judges to the Islamabad, Lahore, Sindh, and Balochistan High Courts. The petition also seeks a directive for the President to confirm additional judges already serving in the superior judiciary.

Advocate Luqman Zafar Chaudhry, through his counsel Zahid Asif Chaudhry, filed the petition on Wednesday, challenging President Zardari’s delay in approving a summary forwarded by the Prime Minister under Article 48 of the Constitution. The petitioner argued that the JCP, chaired by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, completed the constitutional process by recommending the appointments on July 20 and 21. The petition states that the President has “not yet given his assent nor returned the said summary but held it without any legal justification.”

It further highlighted that an oath-taking ceremony for the recommended judges, scheduled for July 27, “could not take place and stood indefinitely postponed” because the President had not approved the summary. The petition contends that Article 48 requires the President to act on the advice of the Prime Minister, allowing only one exception: returning the advice for reconsideration within 15 days. It argues that the Constitution “thus contemplated no third option of indefinite silence or inaction,” and that by withholding the summary, the President has converted a “narrow, time-bound and essentially formal” constitutional function into a power.

The petition filed regarding the delay in presidential approval of the summary for judges' appointments has been set for hearing.