You open the news and read that the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court has taken oath. Or that an Acting Chief Justice is running the court. You wonder who this person is and what the job actually involves. Here is a plain answer.
Who is the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court?
The Chief Justice is the head judge of the High Court of Sindh. The court is the highest court in the province of Sindh. It sits in Karachi, with benches in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Mirpur Khas.
Under Article 192 of the Constitution, a High Court consists of a Chief Justice and as many other judges as the law determines. The Sindh High Court has an approved strength of 28 judges.
What does the Chief Justice actually do?
The Chief Justice runs the court. He decides which judges sit on which benches and which cases each bench hears. He also hears and decides cases himself, like every other judge.
The Governor can create new benches in the province, but only after consulting the Chief Justice. That rule comes from Article 198 of the Constitution. The Chief Justice also names the judges for each bench and for circuit courts inside Sindh.
How does someone become Chief Justice?
Judges of the High Court are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan. The procedure is set out in Article 175A and Article 193 of the Constitution.
To be a High Court judge, a person must be a citizen of Pakistan and at least 40 years old. They must also have been an advocate of a High Court for 10 years, or have held a judicial office for 10 years.
How long does a Chief Justice serve?
A judge of the High Court holds office until the age of 62. They can leave earlier by resigning. They can be removed only in the way the Constitution allows. That is the rule in Article 195.
What is an Acting Chief Justice?
Sometimes the office of Chief Justice falls vacant. Sometimes the Chief Justice is away or unwell. In either case the President appoints one of the other judges to act as Chief Justice. The power comes from Article 196 of the Constitution.
That is why you see the title Acting Chief Justice in the news. It is a normal arrangement, not a sign of trouble.
Who leads the court today?
The current Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court is Mr. Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput. He took oath on 6 December 2025. He had served as Acting Chief Justice since 15 September 2025.
He was born in Hyderabad in 1965 and enrolled as an advocate in 1990. He was appointed as a judge of the Sindh High Court on 31 August 2013. Since then he has served at the principal seat in Karachi, at the Sukkur bench, and in circuit courts in Hyderabad and Larkana.
Recent history of the office
The office has changed hands often in recent years. Mr. Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar led the court through most of 2025. Before him, Mr. Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui served as Chief Justice until February 2025. Mr. Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi held the office from December 2023 to June 2024.
The complete list of Chief Justices goes back to 1976. The court publishes it, with the dates of every term, on its official website.
Why this matters for you
High Court judges decide the big cases in Sindh: constitutional questions, appeals from district courts, and writ petitions. The Chief Justice decides who hears them. If you are following a case in this court, knowing who leads it helps you read the news with more sense.
You can also check a high court case status online or read about how many high courts are there in Pakistan, or how many judges are in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. More plain language guides are on the Lexiber blog and the Lexiber site.
Ask Lexiber free in English or Urdu. It shows you the exact section behind every answer.
