Islamabad:
President Asif Ali Zardari officially declared Judge Sardar Sarfraz Dogar as the highest judge of the Superior Court of Islamabad (IHC) and confirmed the permanent transfer of justice to give along with two other judges.
After the president’s decision, a new list of seniority of IHC judges was published through a notification of the Gazette dated June 27, 2025.
According to the notification, Judge Sarfraz Dogar, who had previously been serving in the transfer, has been placed at the top of the IHC seniority list.
Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani has been listed second and will serve as a senior judge of Puisne. Judge Mian Gul Hassan Aurengzeb remains in third position, while Judge Tariq Mehmood Jhangiri, Judge Babar Sattar and Judge Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan have been included in the fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively.
Judge Arbab Muhammad Tahir occupies the seventh place, followed by Judge Saman Riffat Imtiaz in the eighth place.
Judge Khadim Hussain Soomro, another transferred judge, appears in the ninth place, while Judge Azam Khan, Judge Muhammad Asif (transferred from Quetta) and Judge Inam Amin Minhas occupy the tenth, eleventh and twelfth positions respectively.
The issue of confirming the permanence of the transferred judges and ending updated antiquity had been sent to the president for approval. It marks an important turn in the case of transfer of current judges, which has seen a greater legal answer in recent weeks.
However, the controversy continues to elaborate. Only two days before the new list was issued, five IHC judges presented a formal appeal against the decision of the Supreme Court, arguing that transfers undermine the clear stipulations of the Constitution on judicial appointments and seniority.
On June 27, five judges of the Superior Court of Islamabad had presented an appeal against the previous ruling of the Supreme Court, requesting a suspension in the implementation of the president of that judgment. They urged the court to prohibit the president from acting on the decision until the matter could be completely awarded.
The judges: Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Judge Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Judge Babar Sattar, Judge Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Judge Saman Rafat Imtiaz had previously presented a representation challenging the basis of the transfers.
They argued that a judge transferred to another superior court must make a new oath and that their age must be determined from the date of their new appointment, not their original judicial service.
According to the request, this means that the transferred judges must be classified below the IHC judges who were already part of the Court. Dissident judges had also refrained from attending the oath ceremony of Justice Dogar as the president of the Supreme Court of IHC, a symbolic protest that underlined the deepest crack within the bank.
The legal community now expects the meeting of July 1 of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), which is expected to occupy the issue of the permanent appointments of the main judges to the higher courts of Islamabad, Sindh and Peshawar.
The names of Judge Dogar, Judge Kayani and Judge Miangul Hassan Aurengzeb are currently considering the IHC slot.
