Islamabad:
President Asif Ali Zardari has officially declared Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar as Senior-Most Judge of Islamabad High Court (IHC) and confirmed the permanent transfer of Justice Dogar along with two other judges.
Following the president’s decision, a new seniority list of IHC judges was released through a Gazette message dated June 27, 2025.
According to the message, Justice Sarfraz Dogar, who had previously served with transfer, is located at the top of the seniority list on IHC.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani has been listed in second place and will serve as the senior Puisne judge. Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb follows in the third position, while Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan have been noted fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir ranks seventh, followed by justice Saman Riffat Imtiaz in eighth place.
Justice Khadim Hussain Somro, another transferred judge, is listed ninth, while Justice Azam Khan, Justice Muhammad Asif (transferred from Quetta) and Justice Inam Amin Minhas occupy the tenth, eleven and twelfth position respectively.
The question of confirming the permanentity of transferred judges and ending the updated seniority had been sent to the president for approval. It marks a large reversal in the ongoing judge transfer case, which has seen increased legal competition in recent weeks.
However, the controversy continues to brew. Only two days before the new list was issued, five IHC judges filed a formal appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision and argued that the transfers undermined the clear provisions of legal appointments and seniority.
On June 27, five judges in Islamabad High Court had filed an appeal against the Supreme Court’s previous decision and requested a stay on the president’s implementation of this verdict. They called on the right to prevent the president from acting in the decision until the case could be fully assessed.
The judges – Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz – had previously presented a representation that challenged the basis of the transfer.
They claimed that a judge who was transferred to another Supreme Court must take a fresh oath and that their seniority should be determined from the date of their new appointment, not their original legal service.
According to the petition, this means that the transferred judges must rank under the sitting IHC judge who were already part of the court. The disagreed judges had also refrained from participating in Justice Dogar’s Ed-Cermonia as acting Chief Justice of IHC-a symbolic protest that emphasized the elaborate gap within the bench.
The legal community is now waiting for the July 1st meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), which is expected to take the question of permanent appointments of Chief Justices to Islamabad, Sindh and Peshawar High Courts.
The names of Justice Dogar, Justice Kayani and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb are currently under consideration for the IHC gap.
