ISLAMABAD - Justice Gulzar Ahmed took oath as the new Chief Justice of Pakistan at an impressive ceremony held here at Aiwan-e-Sadar on Saturday. He is the 27th Chief Justice of Pakistan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan along with his cabinet members, First Lady Samina Alvi, Chairman Senate, Speaker National Assembly, governors of Sindh and Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, services chiefs, chief justices of provincial high courts, federal ombudspersons, former chief justices and senior members of the legal fraternity were present on the occasion.
Family members of the new Chief Justice including mother Sartaj Begum and spouse Begum Fauzia Gulzar also attended the ceremony.
After recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath which followed clapping in the hall. Both the Prime Minister and President shook hands with the new Chief Justice and felicitated him.Justice Gulzar Ahmed has replaced Justice Asif Saeed Khosa who had served as Pakistan’s top judge for around 11 months and relinquished the office on Friday.
Justice Gulzar would hold the office till February 2022 and would be replaced by Justice Mushir Alam.
According to his personal profile, Gulzar Ahmed was born on February 2, 1957, in Karachi. His father, Noor Muhammad, was a renowned lawyer in Karachi.
Justice Gulzar Ahmed completed his elementary schooling from the city’s Gulistan School. He then went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Government National College, Karachi, after which he obtained his law degree from SM Law College, Karachi.
He enrolled as an advocate on January 18, 1986, and joined the High Court on April 4, 1988. Subsequently, he became an advocate of the Supreme Court on September 15, 2001. Justice Ahmed was elected honorary secretary of the Sindh High Court Bar Association in Karachi for the year 1999-2000.
Throughout his legal practice, he mostly dealt with civil-corporate law, serving as the legal advisor to numerous multinational and local companies, banks and financial institutions.
Justice Ahmed was elevated as Judge of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on August 27, 2002. He was notified as Senior Puisne Judge of the SHC on February 14, 2011, and was elevated to Supreme Court later that year on November 16.
Justice Ahmed, who was part of the five-judge bench that disqualified former premier Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case, is also a member of the Supreme Judicial Council and the Judicial Commission of Pakistan. Justice Gulzar Ahmed came into the limelight for the first time when he penned a dissenting note in the Panama Papers case’s split verdict.
Justice Gulzar sworn
in as 27th CJP