By IRNA,
Islamabad : Three deposed judges of superior courts who were sacked by former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf after he had imposed emergency in the country, on Saturday took oath as the Supreme Court judges along with a judge of a provincial high court.
Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar administered the oath to Justice Sardar Raza, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani at a ceremony held in the Supreme Court.
After the oath of these four judges the strength of the Supreme Court has been increased to 22. The sanctioned strength of the court was increased to 29 from 16 through the finance bill.
The judges who took fresh oath will assume their positions as judges of the Supreme Court with their seniority intact.
On 3 November 2007 Musharraf declared emergency rule across Pakistan . He suspended the Constitution, imposed State of Emergency , and fired the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In Islamabad , troops entered the Supreme Court building, arrested the judges and kept them under detention in their homes.
Musharraf replaced Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry with Abdul Hameed Dogar as the de facto Chief Justice of Pakistan and also administered the oath of office to three other judges of the Supreme Court under the PCO, Justice Dogar later took a fresh oath on the Constitution after it was restored and the PCO withdrawn.
Pakistani Lawyers since then have been struggling against the government to restore Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as Chief Justice of Pakistan along with other deposed judges; however, the government is reluctant to restore Justice Chaudhry to his original position.
Federal Law Minister Farooq Naek talking to reporters on the occasion said that about 90 percent of deposed judges of the superior court have been restored to their original position.
There are no more PCO judges in the country, Naek said.
He added that after the revival of the Constitution on December 15, 2007, the judges of the superior courts took oath under the 3rd schedule of the Constitution.