ISLAMABAD – Justice Asif Saeed Khosa has been appointed as the new ChiefJustice of Pakistan.
Born on December 21, 1954, in Dera Ghazi Khan, Justice Asif Saeed Khosapassed his matriculation exam in 1969 from the Multan Board. In 1973 heappeared for the B.A exams from Government College Lahore at PunjabUniversity and secured the first position. He did his Master’s in Englishlanguage and literature from the University of the Punjab in 1975.
Justice Khosa then attended the University of Cambridge’s Queens’ College,obtaining a Master’s degree in law with a specialisation in PublicInternational Law. Later he was called to the bar on July 26, 1979, at theHonorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, London.
Barrister Khosa was then appointed as a judge at the Lahore High Court inMay 1998. When on November 3, 2007, former president General (retd.)Musharraf declaring a state of emergency suspended the constitution anddemanded the judges of the superior judiciary to retake oaths under theProvisional Constitutional Order (PCO), Justice Khosa refused to abide bythe presidential order.
Resultantly, he was sacked from the office among other judges of highcourts and the SC.
On August 18, 2008, Justice Khosa was restored to his prior position as aHigh Court judge in the wake of an unprecedented mass movement to restorethe superior judges sacked for not retaking their oaths under the PCO.
The movement, initially launched by lawyers later attracted politicalworkers and civil society activists.
He was in the seven-member larger bench of the Supreme Court which heardthe contempt of court proceedings against the former Prime Minister YousafRaza Gillani.
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In May 2012, the Supreme Court ruled against Gillani, disqualifying himfrom holding the office of the Prime Minister.
Justice Khosa wrote a separate six-page note in which he, quoting famedLebanese author Kahlil Gibran, wrote about the “Pity of the Nation”. Thenote became subject of media coverage all over the country.
Justice Khosa also headed the larger bench of the SC that heard the PanamaPapers case against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.
Remarking on article 62 and 63 of the constitution during the case hearinghe wrote:
“This case is the first of its kind. We know the gravity of a declarationby the court and its effects for both the parties saying that someone wasnot honest. But we have to lay down parameters, otherwise, except for theJamat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq, no one will survive.
Justice Khosa also added passed several remarks that attracted the publicattention while hearing a case against Asia Bibi, a Christian woman allegedof blaspheming against the Holy Prophet (PBUH). A three-member bench of theSC unanimously acquited Bibi on October 31, 2018.
