Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput on Saturday took oath as the new chief justice of the Sindh High Court (SHC) at the swearing-in ceremony held at the Governor’s House.
Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori administered the oath to Justice Rajput, who was appointed by President Asif Ali Zardari following his nomination by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP).
The ceremony was attended by several senior officials, including Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab.
SHC judges, including Justice Faisal Kamal Alam, Justice Arshad Hussain, and Justice Abdul Mubeen Lakho, also attended the ceremony.
Other attending judges included Justice Umar Sial, Justice Faiz Shah, Justice Khalid Hussain Shahani, and Justice Tasneem Sultana.
Additionally, Justice Adnan Karim Memon, Justice Sana Akram Minhas, Justice Abdul Rehman, and Justice Ali Haider also participated in the ceremony.
The JCP, in its first meeting after the 27th Constitutional Amendment and the establishment of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), had recommended appointing permanent chief justices to the SHC and Balochistan High Court (BHC), with the names of Justice Rajput and BHC Acting Chief Justice Muhammad Kamran Khan Mulakhail for the respective posts, earlier this week.
The forum also recommended elevating Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb – an Islamabad High Court judge currently serving as an acting judge of the Supreme Court – as a permanent judge of the SC, with the decision approved by a majority of the JCP’s total membership.
Born on October 16, 2025, Justice Rajput did his LLB from Government Jinnah Law College, Hyderabad, and Master’s in International Relations from the University of Sindh.
Justice Rajput was enrolled with the Sindh Bar Council as an advocate in 1990 and became an Advocate of the High Court in 2001.
He practiced law for three years before he was selected as a Judicial Magistrate in 1993. He was promoted as Senior Civil Judge and Assistant Sessions Judge in the year 2000.
Justice Rajput was elevated as a Judge of the SHC on August 31, 2013, and since then, he has served at the Principal Seat at Karachi, as well as the Bench in Sukkur and Circuit Courts in Hyderabad and Larkana.
There are over 12,000 disposal of cases to his credit. He took the oath as acting CJ of the SHC on September 15, 2025.