At a simple but colourful ceremony at the Aiwan-e-Saddar, President Pervez Musharraf administered the oath of Chief Justice of Pakistan to Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary thus installing him as the 20th chief of the national judiciary since independence.
He follows a long list of prominent jurists that came from various parts of the country to preside over the country's highest judicial forum except Balochistan that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary will now represent. He is to stay in office for the second longest tenure a Chief Justice enjoyed since Chief Justice A R Cornelious, who was the fourth in the line of succession.
Soon after his return to the Court from the presidency, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary presided over the First Bench in the second half of the day. He sat flanked by Justice Rana Baghwandas and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad hearing an appeal in a murder case.
The Bench sat 35 minutes beyond the usual court time and rose acquitting a youthful accused giving him the benefit of doubt but at the same time held that the law relating to the juvenile delinquents had a retrospective effect in this case as the accused at the time of his arrest was not adult.
Senator Abdul Latif Khosa had pleaded for the youth while Asghar Khan Rokhari represented the kins of the murdered person. The Assistant Advocate General of the Punjab, Ms. Afshan Ghazenfer, appeared for the Punjab government.
The change in the command at the Supreme Court was evident from the slight changes in the décor of the First Court room. A coloured portrait of the outgoing Chief Justice, Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, looking somber but determined as he used to be in his gold-laced black gown of the office stood added to the nine of his predecessors on the right-hand of the Bench. The opposite side panel has same number of black and white as well as coloured pictures of Chief Justices from Justices Mohammad Monir to Sheikh Riaz Ahmed.
Similarly, the roll of Chief Justices that until Wednesday afternoon had the 19 names starting from the first incumbent, Justice Sir Abdur Rashid, to Justice Siddiqui was filled up by the carpenters when they embossed the retiring date of the latter against his name.
On the opposite wall stood nailed a new roll of Chief Justices with the name and date of assumption of office by the 20th Chief Justice. It will have to wait until Dec 11 in 2013 to have another filling.
On his return from the Aiwan-e-Saddar, Chief Justice Chaudhary was presented a guard of honour by the police security contingent guarding the Supreme Court and was applauded by the employees who had thronged into the porch.
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