KARACHI: Former chief justice of Pakistan Nazim Hussain Siddiqui passed away here on Saturday morning after a protracted illness. He was 81.

His funeral prayers were offered at a mosque in the Defence Housing Authority and he was laid to rest at a graveyard in DHA Phase-VIII. A large number of lawyers, judges and relatives attended the funeral.

Justice Siddiqui, who was born on June 30, 1940 in Hyderabad, became the chief justice of Pakistan in December 2003. He had taken over as CJP soon after the then president Pervez Musharraf had given assent to the constitutional amendment, commonly known as Seventeenth Amendment.

Justice Siddiqui was appointed judge of the Sindh High Court in March 1992 and became the chief justice of the SHC in March 1999 and elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court in February 2000.

He did his BA, LLB from the University of Hyderabad and LLM from the University of Karachi.

Justice Siddiqui practised as a lawyer in Hyderabad from 1961 to 1967. During his career, he served as a civil judge, senior civil judge, sessions judge, district judge, registrar of the SHC, customs judge, judge special anti-corruption, labour and banking courts, chairman commercial court and drug courts, member Supreme Appellate Court/Tribunal and chairman of the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

Meanwhile, the apex court said in a statement that Chief Justice of Pakis­tan Gulzar Ahmed and other judges of the apex court had expressed deep sorrow and grief over the sad demise of Justice Siddiqui and extended their heartfelt condolences and sincere sympathies to the bereaved family.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2022