• Extends tenure of two other SHC judges • Pir Masood Chishti elected PBC vice chairman; Munir A. Malik made executive committee chairman ISLAMABAD: On the second day of its meeting, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) recommended the confirmation of 10 additional judges of the Sindh High Court (SHC) out of a total list of 12, by a majority of its total membership. Presided over by Chief Justice of Pakis­tan Yahya Afridi, the JCP, after due consideration of the relevant data forms, ant­ecedents and evaluation material placed before it, confirmed Justice Miran Muha­mmad Shah, Justice Ms Tasneem Sultana, Justice Riazat Ali Sahar, Justice Muham­mad Hassan (Akber), Justice Abdul Ham­id Bhurgi, Justice Jan Ali Junejo, Justice Nisar Ahmed Bhanbhro, Justice Ali Haider ‘Ada’, Justice Muhammad Osman Ali Hadi and Justice Muhammad Jaffer Raza as permanent judges of the SHC. Meanwhile, the JCP also recommended the extension of two additional judges for another six months, namely Justice Khalid Hussain Shahani and Justice Syed Fiazul Hassan Shah. The meeting was held at the conference room of the Supreme Court to make recommendations for the confirmation of additional judges as judges of the SHC, as well as for the reconstitution and extension of constitutional benches. Similarly, the commission, by a majority vote, also nominated four judges to the constitutional bench of the SHC, besides extending the tenure of the constitutional benches by six months. The nominated judges are Justice Amjad Ali Bohio, Justice Muhammad Hassan (Akber), Justice Ali Haider ‘Ada’ and Justice Muhammad Osman Ali Hadi. On Wednesday, the JCP will consider the confirmation of 10 additional judges of the Peshawar High Court. Meanwhile, in a separate development, the 248th meeting of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) elected Pir Muham­mad Masood Chishti as the new vice chairman of the PBC for the year 2026 by a majority vote. Presided over by Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, who is also the chairman of the PBC, the meeting was held at the council’s office in the Supreme Court building and transacted a number of items on the agenda. While acting as the Returning Officer for the election, the AGP invited proposals for the post of vice chairman. In response, Farooq Hamid Naek proposed the name of Pir Muhammad Masood Chishti from Lahore, which was seconded by Syed Qalb-i-Hassan. On the other hand, Muhammad Maqsood Buttar proposed the name of Qazi Muhammad Arshad from Abbottabad as the other candidate. Both Pir Muhammad Masood Chishti and Qazi Muhammad Arshad consented to the proposals of their respective candidature. As there was a contest, the election was held through a secret ballot. After the completion of the polling process, the ballot papers were taken out of the ballot box, counted and found to be 23 in number. As per the count of the ballot papers, Pir Muhammad Masood Chishti secured 15 votes, while Qazi Muhammad Arshad obtained eight votes. Resultantly, the Returning Officer declared Pir Muhammad Masood Chishti as the elected vice chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council for the year 2026. The council also elected Muneer A. Ma­­l­­ik from Karachi as the chairman of the PBC executive committee for the year 2026. Meanwhile, the PBC strongly condem­n­­ed the campaign of character assassinati­­on against judges of the Lahore High Cou­rt and the Islamabad High Court on baseless allegations, terming it an attack on the prestige and dignity of the judiciary. The council reiterated that the legal fraternity would never allow anyone to succeed in nefarious designs aimed at targeting judges. Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2026