KARACHI: Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui took the oath as the 27th chief justice of the Sindh High Court on Saturday.

Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori administered the oath at a ceremony held on the premises of the SHC.

Besides judges of the high court and former judges of the apex court and the SHC, the event was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, Inspector General of Sindh Police Ghulam Nabi Memon, Advocate General of Sindh Hasan Akbar, Prosecutor General of Sindh Dr Faiz Shah and a large number of senior lawyers and federal and provincial law officers.

Justice Siddiqui has already been serving as acting chief justice of the SHC since June 25.

He was notified as regular chief justice by the ministry of law & justice as the Judicial Commission of Pakistan had approved on July 2 his elevation after considering the nominations of top three judges for the position of chief justice of the SHC.

The incumbent chief justice has decided thousands of cases during his over 12-year judicial career

He became the senior-most judge of SHC after then-chief justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi was elevated to the Supreme Court last month.

Justice Abbasi held the office of the chief justice of SHC for around eight months.

Visits Mazar-i-Quaid

After taking the oath, Chief Justice Siddiqui along with several SHC judges visited the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and offered prayer and paid tribute to the father of the nation.

He also laid a wreath on the grave of the Quaid-i-Azam and wrote his impressions in the visitors’ book.

Born on August 12, 1965, in Karachi, Justice Siddiqui was appointed as a judge of the SHC on March 20 2012 and became senior puisne judge in November last year.

He has handed down over 4,200 important judgements/orders during his over 12-year judicial career so far and 1,050 of them are the reported judgements.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the subordinate judiciary in 1992. He started practice at the high court in 1994 and became an advocate of the Supreme Court in 2008.

Justice Siddiqui will remain the chief justice of SHC up to August 2027 or till his elevation to the apex court.

Presently, the SHC is functioning with 31 judges against the sanctioned strength of 40.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2024