ISLAMABAD: Justice Umar Ata Bandial was sworn in as the nation’s 28th chief justice during a ceremony held at the presidency on Wednesday.
President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath to Justice Bandial.
The event was attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry, judges of the Supreme Court and lawyers.
Elevated to the top judicial office, Justice Bandial will now face a veritable mountain of 51,766 cases pending before the Supreme Court alone.
The total backlog of cases in the national judiciary, including the superior courts as well as district courts, stands at a whopping 2.1 million.
The judge will serve in the office until September 16, 2023, before being replaced by Justice Qazi Faez Isa who has recently been at the centre of criticism for failing to disclose information about his family’s foreign assets.
Justice Bandial served as chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) between 2012 and 2014.
Out of the total strength of 17 justices, seven will have the opportunity to become the chief justice while the remaining 10 will retire as Supreme Court judges.
As per the scheme of seniority, Justice Isa would retire on October 25, 2024, and be replaced by Justice Ijaz ul-Ahsan who would assume the office for 282 days.
Then, on August 4, 2025, the post would go to Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah who would remain in office until November 27, 2027, before being succeeded by Justice Munib Akhtar.
Justice Yahya Afridi would be the nation’s next top judge from December 14, 2028, until January 22, 2030.
The newly-elevated Justice Ayesha A. Malik will become Pakistan’s first female chief justice on January 23, 2030. She would keep the office until June 2, 2031.
WHO IS JUSTICE BANDIAL?
Born on September 17, 1958, in Lahore, Justice Bandial received his elementary and secondary education in Lahore, Kohat, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.
“He secured his B.A. (Economics) degree from Columbia University followed by a Law Tripos degree from Cambridge University and qualified as Barrister-at-Law from Lincoln’s Inn,” the Supreme Court’s website read.
In 1983, Justice Bandial enrolled as an advocate of the LHC and later, as an advocate of the Supreme Court.
As a lawyer at the high court, he dealt mostly with commercial, banking, tax and property matters. He also handled international commercial disputes and appeared in arbitration matters before the Supreme Court of Pakistan and international arbitral tribunals in London and Paris.
Bandial was elevated as a judge of the LHC on December 4, 2004. He is one of the judges who refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), issued by then-president Pervez Musharraf in November 2007.
He was reinstated as a judge of the LHC after the lawyers succeeded in their movement for the restoration of the judiciary and Constitution against the Musharraf government.
Justice Bandial served as the chief justice of the LHC for two years until his elevation as a judge of the Supreme Court in June 2014.
During his stint as a judge of the high court and the apex court, Justice Bandial has issued judgments on a number of civil and commercial disputes, and in constitutional rights and public interest cases.
