Newsmakers: CJP Khosa

There has been no word on former CJP Saqib Nisar throughout 2019, since he retired, thanks to the ‘no extension – thank you for your service – now goodbye’ transfer of powers feature of the superior judiciary. Either it was impossible to further lower the bar of professional adjudication, or Nisar’s successor was a different breed of judge altogether, or perhaps both; when CJP Khosa took over the reins to repair the image of a battered judiciary in desperate need of some healing and stability, and he delivered just that. He actively avoided the practice of taking suo motu notices that have brought the judiciary into disrepute so many times before, not taking a single one in his eleven months as CJP. Throughout his stint, things had remained pretty boring and who doesn’t enjoy a little action from the Supreme Court? And CJP Khosa would’ve left a legacy centered on the panama verdict that ousted Sharif, calling his clan a Sicilian Mafia had it not been for his last month in office. COAS Bajwa’s extension, approved with much haste by the PTI, was put in limbo, with the SC directing the government to pass legislation in order to define its tenure properly, a first in Pakistan’s history. Few days later former dictator Musharraf was found guilty by a special court of high treason, another first. Although CJP Khosa had little to do with the latter judgment, both will be attributed to him for years to come.