ISLAMABAD: Three judges drawn from diverse legal backgrounds have taken oath as additional judges of the Islamabad High Court, raising the court’s working strength to 10.

Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar administered the oath on Tuesday to Justice Ayyaz Shaukat, Justice Umair Majeed Malik and Justice Shahrukh Arjumand. Islamabad Advocate General Naveed Hayat Malik, Additional Attorney General Rashid Hafeez, IHC Bar Association president Wajid Gilani and representatives of the Islamabad Bar Council attended the ceremony.

Justice Shaukat specialises in tax, banking and commercial matters and has appeared in constitutional, corporate and commercial litigation before the superior courts. He served as advocate general for Islamabad before his elevation, and in March was named chairman of the Pakistan Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority.

Justice Malik is known for his work in legislative drafting and was a legal consultant to the National Accountability Bureau between 2002 and 2005. His practice has spanned petroleum laws and regulatory regimes, gas sale agreements, employment and labour law, procurement contracts, and advisory work for the construction sector.

Justice Arjumand is from Upper Dir in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is the first judge from that district to reach any high court. He took his LLB from the University of Peshawar, entered the judiciary as a civil judge in 2003 and rose to sessions judge in 2017 — a first for a district long absent from the superior judiciary.

Three seats on the bench remain vacant. Those are expected to be filled through transfers, in line with a decision of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan.

The appointments follow a broader round of judicial appointments across the superior courts. President Asif Ali Zardari cleared the pending summaries on Monday, approving 10 additional judges for the Lahore High Court and three each for the Sindh, Islamabad and Balochistan high courts, along with confirmations at the PHC and LHC — a day after the IHC ordered the federal government and the Ministry of Law to explain the delay in a written report. Cause lists for all three new judges were issued by the registrar’s office, clearing them to begin hearing cases from Wednesday.