Islamabad, Feb. 28: Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has appointed 16 Additional Judges to the Lahore High Court, increasing the current strength of high court judges from 36 to 52.

Seven Deputy Attorney Generals and five standing counsels have also been appointed to represent the federal government before the courts, the Dawn reports.

The newly appointed additional judges are: Pervez Ali Chawla, Ms Jamila Jahanoor Aslam, Muhammad Shafqat Khan Abbasi, Mahmood Akhtar Khan, Abdul Sattar Goraya, Habibullah Shakir, Pervez Inayat Malik, Nazir Ahmed Ghazi, Syed Ihtasham Qadir Shah, Anwarul Haq Pannu, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, Imtiaz Rasheed Siddiqui, Chaudhry Naeem Masood, Arshad Mahmood, Irfan Qadir and Jamshed Rahmat Ullah.

Pervez Ali Chawla was acting as registrar of the LHC before his elevation as the judge of the high court. Syed Ihtasham Qadir Shah is the son of Advocate Ehsan Qadir Shah who appeared as a counsel of late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Irfan Qadir had appeared as counsel of Tikka Mohammad Iqbal, on the petition of whom the Supreme Court had validated the November 3, 2007 proclamation of emergency by former President Pervez Musharraf.

Speaking about the new appointments, a High Court source said Zardari should not have appointed all the people from his own political cadre by ignoring other sections of the bars altogether. The government could have made better choices.

The seven appointed DAGs are: Khan Dil Mohammad Khan Alizai, Abdul Razzaq Raja, Syed Iqbal Hussain, Shah Gillani, Nazar Akbar, Mian Khan Malik and Syed S Ashiq Raza.

Five standing counsel are: Robina Saeed, Yasmin Sehgal, Chaudhry Mohammad Jehanzeb Wahla, Syed Ahmed Ali Shah, Shahab Sarki and Rizwan Ali Dodani.

Meanwhile, Sardar Ghazi, who was appointed by the government as prosecutor for the trial of the suspects arrested from Pakistan in connection with the Mumbai attack, has been removed from the post of DAG.

Soon after his appointment, he had told media that the government had requested India for the physical custody of lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Qasab. (ANI)