Lahore, Nov 8 : Senator Khalid Ranjha, Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid and former Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan have refused to become Supreme Court (SC) judges after the government asked them to fill the vacant posts in the apex court.

A high level meeting was held in Islamabad in which President Pervez Musharraf’s legal advisers suggested the vacant seats in the Supreme Court should be filled as soon as possible, the Geo News reported.

The legal advisers also advised Musharraf to get his eligibility case decided from the 11-member Supreme Court bench as it was before the proclamation of emergency to avoid future legal or constitutional hassles, the channel reported.

Earlier, a majority of the senior judges in Pakistan have rejected the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) issued by Musharraf, and refused to take oath under the new quasi-martial law emergency set-up.

The Sindh High Court judges rejected the new order overwhelmingly as only four out of 28 judges took oath under the new PCO.

In Punjab, 16 out of 31 judges refused to join the new set-up while only 13 judges took oath. The decision of the remaining two was not known.

In the Supreme Court in Islamabad, only four judges took oath, including Justice Hamid Dogar who was inducted at a special ceremony as the new Chief Justice.

Three others who joined him were Justice Abbasi, Justice Khokhar and Justice Buttar.

Though all the five judges of the Balochistan High Court, including its Chief Justice, took oath under the PCO, six judges of the NWFP High Court, including the Chief Justice, refused to do so.

Never before has there been such a huge forced exodus of judges from the superior courts, The News reported. (ANI)