[JURIST] Three new judges were appointed to the reconstituted Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] Monday, bringing the regular membership of the court up to 14, including Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar. Pakistan's Law Ministry said in a statement that the new judges are Justice Mian Hamid Farooq and Justice Syed Sakhi Hussain Bokhari of the Lahore High Court and Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, a retired judge of the High Court of Sindh. Last week Pakistani Attorney General Malik Qayyum confirmed he had reversed an earlier decision [JURIST report] to cut the size of the high court from its pre-emergency quorum of 17 to 12 after Dogar told him that a reduced bench would be unable to keep up with the court's workload. The pre-emergency Supreme Court judges led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry were effectively dismissed under the declaration of emergency issued November 3 and have since been formally retired [JURIST report] by the government. Dawn has more.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview [transcript] broadcast on CNN's Late Edition Sunday that he was not reinstating Chaudhry or the other ousted judges and that Dogar would remain in place:

He [Chaudhry] is no more the chief justice of Pakistan. The chief justice of Pakistan is Mr. Dogar now, and he remains there. And there are judges in the Supreme Court, they are the judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts. Nobody is being allowed to go back.

Musharraf said Chaudhry and his colleagues had challenged the supremacy of parliament and had interfered with the ability of the executive to govern and had to be replaced. Dawn has more.