Justice Kayani will head a single bench at the Rawalpindi registry of the Lahore High Court under a new duty roster for November and December 2026. The roster moves him back to the twin cities after months at the court’s principal seat in Lahore. It also leaves him without a division bench, despite his past rank as the senior puisne judge of the Islamabad High Court.
The roster runs from November 2 to December 24, 2026, and was reported in Dawn’s October 27 edition. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani hails from Islamabad, and Rawalpindi sits beside the capital as its twin city.
What the new roster says
The Rawalpindi registry will have three division benches and six single benches under the new roster. The division benches will be Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan with Justice Syed Farhad Ali Shah for criminal matters, Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf with Justice Muhammad Raza Qureshi for civil matters, and a special division bench of Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf with Justice Syed Farhad Ali Shah.
The six single benches will be headed by Justices Sadaqat Ali Khan, Mirza Viqas Rauf, Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Muhammad Raza Qureshi, Malik Javid Iqbal Wains and Syed Farhad Ali Shah. Justice Kayani’s name appears only on the single-bench list. He has no division bench in the roster.
Justice Kayani and the Rawalpindi roster
He served as the senior puisne judge of the Islamabad High Court and was expecting elevation to chief justice. Then the Judicial Commission of Pakistan approved his transfer to the Lahore High Court in April 2026, and he was posted to its principal seat in Lahore.
After the transfer, he lost his seniority and stood 12th on the Lahore High Court’s seniority list. The new roster keeps that position in practical terms: a single bench at a registry, not a division bench at the principal seat.
The transfer was confirmed in April 2026 by the Ministry of Law and Justice. The notification moved Justice Kayani to the Lahore High Court, Justice Babar Sattar to the Peshawar High Court and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz to the Sindh High Court. The Judicial Commission had approved the transfers under Article 200 of the Constitution, and the president approved them on the commission’s recommendation.
The challenge that is still pending
The transfers prompted a legal fight that has not ended. Justice Kayani challenged the inter-high court transfers after Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar moved from the Lahore High Court to the Islamabad High Court, along with two judges from the Sindh and Balochistan high courts.
The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench upheld the transfers to the Islamabad High Court, and Justice Dogar is now its chief justice. Justice Kayani and other senior Islamabad High Court judges then challenged the administrative powers exercised by Chief Justice Dogar. They alleged that the office had been turned into a “monocracy” and that judges could be excluded from the roster at will.
That challenge remains pending, according to Dawn’s report. The new roster therefore lands while the wider fight over rosters and administrative power is still open.
What it means for Rawalpindi litigants
For people with cases at the Rawalpindi registry, the roster sets who will hear them from November 2. A single bench hears cases alone, while a division bench hears them with two judges. Criminal and civil work at the registry will run through the benches named above until December 24.
The Rawalpindi registry is one of the court’s circuit benches, alongside Bahawalpur and Multan, and its roster matters to litigants across the Potohar region.
The wider court system has seen other roster and staffing changes this year. The Islamabad High Court has changed its registrar and inspection staff, as reported in the court’s registrar change, and its judges have faced challenges to appointments, covered in the challenge to NAB-related appointments. The Lahore High Court’s own rulings continue to shape criminal law, as seen in its ruling on conviction and mental illness. Even routine court administration has drawn attention, as shown by the Islamabad High Court lift incident.
What happens next
The roster takes effect on November 2. Justice Kayani will sit alone on his single bench at Rawalpindi until December 24, while the challenge to administrative powers runs alongside it.
