ISLAMABAD: Justice Umar Ata Bandial became the 28th chief justice of Pakistan as on Wednesday he took oath of the office at a ceremony held at the Aiwan-i-Sardar, Islamabad.
He is among those judges who had refused to take Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) oath after Pervez Musharraf proclaimed emergency in the country on 3rd November 2007. He was restored as result of the lawyers’ movement for the revival of the judiciary.
The main goal before Chief Justice Bandial is to reduce the cases pendency in the Supreme Court. “The growing pendency of cases remains one of the main issues facing this Court,” he stated one day ago, while addressing a Full Court Reference held in the honour of the outgoing CJP Gulzar Ahmed.
He stated; “To overcome this challenge, we need the cooperation of the Bar in two ways: first, to save Court time there should be greater reliance on written briefs, concise statements and skeleton arguments by counsel that obviate the need for copious notes and for counsel to end the culture of seeking adjournments at the time of hearing. Second, the Bar must lend its support for adding capacity to the Court for the elevation of judges to the Supreme Court whose seniority, honesty, competency, and judicial temperament are accompanied with the diversity of experience suited to the nature of work that needs disposal.”
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Born in Lahore on September 17, 1958, Justice Bandial received elementary and secondary education from schools in Kohat, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and Lahore. He secured a bachelor’s degree in economics from Columbia University, followed by a Law Tripos degree from Cambridge and qualified as a barrister-at-law from the prestigious Lincoln’s Inn in London.
In 1983, he was enrolled as an advocate of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and a few years later, as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
In his law practice at Lahore, Justice Bandial dealt mostly with commercial, banking, tax and property matters. Justice Bandial also handled international commercial disputes after 1993, right up until his elevation.
Justice Bandial also appeared in arbitration matters before the Supreme Court and various international arbitral tribunals in London and Paris. Justice Bandial was elevated as a judge of the LHC on December 4, 2004. He served as chief justice of the LHC for two years until his elevation as a judge of the apex court in June 2014.
During his career in the superior judiciary, Justice Bandial has rendered a number of important judgements on issues of public and private law. These include pronouncements on civil and commercial disputes, constitutional rights and public interest matters.
Justice Bandial also taught contract law and torts law at the Punjab University Law College, Lahore until 1987 and remained a member of its graduate studies committee, while serving as the LHC judge.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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