ISLAMABAD: Justice Asif Saeed Khosa was sworn in as the 26th chief justice of Pakistan.
President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath to the new chief justice of the country, in a ceremony held at President House, Islamabad.
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Senate chairman, National Assembly speaker, members of the federal cabinet, parliamentarians, services chiefs and serving and retired judges of the Supreme Court and lawyers.
Several foreign dignitaries belonging to the law and justice field also attended the ceremony.
Chief Justice Khosa has replaced Chief Justice (retd) Mian Saqib Nisar, whose tenure came to an end with his retirement yesterday.
Khosa, 64, will serve as the chief justice for almost eleven months, and will retire on December 20 this year.
Known as the “poetic justice” for his habit of citing works of literature in his judgements, he is regarded as Pakistan´s top expert in criminal law.
Khosa was a member of the Supreme Court panel that last year overturned the death penalty of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman jailed for blasphemy.
He was also among the judges who disqualified from politics for life former prime minister Nawaz Sharif after corruption allegations in 2017.
In his judgement, he cited the Balzac epigraph from Mario Puzo´s 1969 novel “The Godfather”, which reads: “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.”
Profile
Born on December 21, 1954 in Dera Ghazi Khan, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa matriculated from Multan in 1969 and completed his intermediate from Government College, Lahore in 1971.
He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Punjab, and his LLM degree from Queens College at Cambridge in 1978.
He enrolled as an advocate at the Lahore High Court in 1979, and then at the Supreme Court in 1985. On February 18, 2010, Justice Khosa was elevated to the position of a Supreme Court judge.
Justice Khosa has taught at a number of universities, including University Law College, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan; Punjab University Law College, Lahore; Pakistan College of Law, Lahore; Civil Services Academy, Lahore; National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), Lahore.
He has also served as a visiting lecturer at National Police Academy, Islamabad; Staff Training Institute of the Services and General Administration Department of the Government of the Punjab; Training Course for Civil Judges conducted by the Lahore High Court; and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Justice Khosa is in-charge of the Federal Judicial Academy, Islamabad since 2015, and is also a member of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan and the Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan since 2015.
He is married with two daughters and four grandchildren.
