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       KARACHI: Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput on Monday took the oath as the acting chief justice of the Sindh High Court following the retirement of Chief Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar.

       He will run the affairs of SHC till the appointment of a regular chief justice by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP).

       Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, who has now become second in line on the seniority list of the SHC judges, administered the oath to Justice Rajput in a ceremony held on the premises of the high court and attended by SHC judges, Law Minister Zia ul Hasan Lanjar and senior lawyers.

       Born on Oct 16, 1965 in Hyderabad, Justice Rajput was enrolled as a lawyer for subordinate judiciary in 1990 and became an advocate of the SHC in 2001. He had also served as a judicial officer from 1993 to 2001 in the subordinate judiciary and later left the service and started his private practice as a lawyer. He was appointed as a judge of the SHC in August 2013.

       Before the 26th Amendment, the senior most judge of any high court or the apex court was appointed as the chief justice. However, after the amendment, the top judge of any high court or apex court will be picked from the three senior most judges by the JCP.

       The top three judges in the SHC are Justice Rajput, Justice Kalhoro and Justice Mahmood A. Khan.

       Meanwhile, the acting chief justice has appointed District and Session Judge (Sujawal) Asif Majid as the new registrar of the SHC.

       The outgoing registrar, Suhail Muhammad Laghari, has been appointed as the secretary of the Supreme Judicial Council on a deputation basis for a period of one year by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi.

       Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2025