Pakistan SC gets three more judges

Three new judges of Pakistan's Supreme Court were on Monday sworn in by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, raising its strength to 14.

President Pervez Musharraf had on Sunday appointed three high court judges -- Justices Mian Hamid Farooq and Syed Sakhi Hussain Bokhari of the Lahore High Court and retired judge Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery of the Sindh High Court -- to the Supreme Court. 

The government recently dropped a plan to cut the strength of the apex court from 17 to 12 after Dogar said a smaller bench will not be able to keep up with the workload.

Musharraf had sacked all members of the superior judiciary who refused to endorse the emergency that he proclaimed on November 3, including former Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Most of the deposed judges are currently under house arrest.

Attorney General Malik Qayyum had, shortly after the imposition of the emergency, said that the apex court's strength would be reduced.

After many judges and lawyers refused to be appointed to the Supreme Court under the Provisional Constitutional Order issued by Musharraf, the government roped in retired judges from the provincial high courts.