Justice Gulzar Ahmed Saturday took oath as new Chief Justice of Pakistan. President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath of the office to Justice Gulzar Ahmed in a ceremony held at Aiwan-i-Sadr, here.

Prime Minister Imran Khan along with his cabinet members, First Lady Samina Alvi, Chairman Senate, Speaker National Assembly, governors of Sindh and Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, services chiefs, chief justices of provincial high courts, federal ombudspersons, former chief justices and senior members of the legal fraternity were present on the occasion.

Family members of the new Chief Justice including mother Sartaj Begum and spouse Begum Fauzia Gulzar also attended the ceremony.

After recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, the President administered the oath which followed clapping in the hall. Both the prime minister and President shook hands with the new Chief Justice and felicitated him.

Justice Gulzar Ahmed has replaced Justice Asif Saeed Khosa who had served as Pakistan's top judge for around 11 months and relinquished the office on Friday.

Justice Gulzar would hold the office till February 2022 and would be replaced by Justice Mushir Alam.

Born on February 2, 1957 in Karachi, Justice Gulzar got his early education from Gulistan School, Karachi, BA Degree from Government National College, Karachi and LLB degree from SM Law College, Karachi.

Having enrolled as advocate of the High Court in 1988 and of the Supreme Court in 2001, he was elected as Honorary Secretary of the Sindh High Court Bar Association for the year 1999-2000.

In 2002, he was elevated as Judge of Sindh High Court on August 27, 2002, notified as Senior Puisne Judge of the same court and later elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on November 16, 2011. He had also served as Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan from November 20-28, 2018 and May 13-17, 2019.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2019