Abdul Hameed Dogar

Abdul Hameed Dogar
[1] عبدالحمید ڈوگر
Chief Justice of Pakistan[2](de facto)[3]
In office
3 November 2007[2] – 21 March 2009[4]
Nominated by Pervez Musharaf[2]
Preceded by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry[2]
Succeeded by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry[4]
Justice Supreme Court[5]
In office
28 April 2000[6] – November 3, 2007[2]
Nominated by Mohammad Rafiq Tarar[7]
Justice Sindh High Court[5]
In office
10 April 1995[5] – 28 April 2000[5]
Personal details
Born March 22, 1944 (1944-03-22) (age 67)[5]
Sindh, Pakistan
Nationality Pakistani

Abdul Hameed Dogar (Urdu: [1]عبدالحمید ڈوگر) is a former justice of Sindh High Court[5] and a former Chief Justice of Pakistan.[5][4][8]

Following the Proclamation of Emergency by General Pervez Musharraf as Chief of Army Staff, on November 3, 2007.,[2] Justice Dogar took oath on Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and was administered the oath of office of Chief Justice of Pakistan.[9] On July 31, 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in delivering a decision on Constitution Petitions No. 08 and 09 of 2009, declared that the taking oath on PCO was not legal and held that Justice Dogar was never a Constitutional Chief Justice of Pakistan as the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan was never vacant by the de jure Chief Justice, hence treated him the de facto Chief Justice of Pakistan by protecting his all administrative, financial acts and any oath made before him in the ordinary course of affairs of the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, except the recommendations made by him in respect of appointments and reappointments for the offices of the superior judges.[10]

Contents

Life

Dogar was born in the village of Gaarhi Mori, in Khairpur district, Sindh province.[11]

He passed LL.B. from Law College, Punjab University in 1969. He enrolled as Advocate in 1970 and practiced law for 25 years before elevation to judiciary.[5]

He also attended Third Lawyers Courses/Lectures in Shariah (Islamic Law Course) in 1991 in International Islamic University Islamabad, Al-Azhar University (Cairo) Egypt, Macca and Madina University, Saudi Arabia.[5]

Posts held in Bar

Posts held in other fields

Judicial career

Mr Dogar joined the judicial service on April 10, 1995 with an appointment to the Sindh High Court.[5]

He was elevated to the Supreme Court on April 28, 2000.[5]

Following the Proclamation of Emergency by Chief of Army Staff[9] General Pervez Musharraf, Dogar was appointed as Chief Justice of Pakistan.[2] He took oath on Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) on November 3, 2007.[2][12] Earlier a 7-member bench of the Supreme Court had overturned the PCO.[13] Dogar was one of the only four sitting judges in Supreme Court who immediately took oath under the PCO 2007 on November 3, 2007, when the majority of Supreme Court judges refused to take oath under the PCO.[2] The others judges who took the PCO oath with him were Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, Faqir Muhammad Khokhar and M. Javed Buttar.[2] Later in the evening, in Karachi Saiyed Saeed Ashhad also took oath on PCO on November 3, 2007.[14]

Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar took a new oath on 15 December 2007, this time on the constitution.[15]

He retired from Supreme Court on March 21, 2009.[4]

On July 31, 2009, in a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court of Pakistan termed as illegal and unconstitutional the appointment of Abdul Hammed Dogar as Chief Justice.[16]

Controversies

Oath on PCO 1999

On January 26, 2000, the higher judiciary was asked to take fresh oath of office under the PCO 1999 by the Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf.[17] Justice Dogar as the sitting judge of Sindh High Court took oath.[17] On 31 July 2009 the Supreme court of Pakistan unanimously declared in a judgement that Musharff's act of 3 November 2007 to impose the emergency as a Chief of Army Staff was unconstitunal and unlawfull. Consequently in the absence of consulations made by the Dejure Chief Justice of Pakistan, all the nominations made by the Defacto Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar during his tenure were held to be null and void.

PCO 2007 Oath and Appointment as Chief Justice of Pakistan

On November 3, 2007, the then Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Pervez Musharaf declared emergency in Pakistan and issued a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). A seven bench supreme court bench headed by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued an order that declared emergency illegal and ordered that no judge shall take oath on PCO.[18]

Mr. Dogar along with 3 other judges immediately took the oath under PCO. Mr Dogar was appointed as the Chief Justice of this newly constituted Supreme Court [2] . On November 23, 2007, Mr Dogar and the newly constituted bench consisting of Ijaz-ul-Hassan Khan, Muhammad Qaim Jan Khan, Musa K. Leghari, Ch. Ijaz Yousaf, Muhammad Akhtar Shabbir and Zia Pervez declared that all judges, including the then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who did not take oath on PCO, are deemed to have been removed from the bench[19] .[20]

In a later development, on December 3, 2007 federal government issued notification of removal of three justices of Supreme Court without any retirement privileges. They were: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday.[21]

On March 21, 2009 when Mr. Justice Dogar retired from the bench as the Chief Justice of Pakistan,[4] the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was declared to have ceased to hold the office by the bench headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar,[20] was notified as restored to bench as Chief Justice.[4] Since Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry after November 3, 2007 was not re-appointed as Justice[22] and also never re-took oath of office,[22] legality of appointment of Mr Dogar as Chief Justice is questionable and Mr Dogar is considered as a De-facto Chief Justice rather than De-Jure[3][22][23][24]

Bank loan

Mr. Justice Dogar Purchased a house which was already on loan granted to earlier owner. Thus, the same liability was transferred on him. A loan of Rs. 8.93 million from the National Bank of Pakistan has been paid by him and nothing is outstanding anymore [25]

Reassessment of daughter's FSC results

An investigative report by Daily News found out that Justice Dogar's daughter Farah Hameed Dogar examination paper for F.Sc. were reassessed in violation of previous Supreme Court rulings.[26] While the results of 201 candidates were revised only for Farah were the examination papers re-marked and the numbers increased. In the other 200 cases, only errors in adding the total marks were corrected.[27]

References

  1. ^ a b شہزاد ملک (2009-03-20). "جسٹس ڈوگر کا آخری دن". BBC News (Urdu. http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2009/03/090320_dogar_last_day_ra.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-22. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Justice Dogar new CJ; a number of judges opt out". Dawn. 2007-11-04. http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/04/top3.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-24. 
  3. ^ a b Muhammad Waqas Malik (2009-03-17). "Confusion Between Dejure & Defacto". National Co-ordination of Councils. http://www.ncc.org.pk/. Retrieved 2009-04-20. .
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Dogar retires, Iftikhar to resume duties today". RushmoreDrive. 2009-03-21. http://www.rushmoredrive.com/LatestNews/Dogar_retires_Iftikhar_to_resume_duties_today.aspx?ArticleId=45277583968046659. Retrieved 2009-04-19. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Supreme Court Report Golden Jubilee Edition 2006, pages 15-16 (21-22)
  6. ^ a b Supreme Court Annual Report 2004
  7. ^ APP (2000-04-26). "Supreme Court judges' strength completed". Karachi Page. http://karachipage.com/news/Apr_00/042600.html. Retrieved 2008-04-22. 
  8. ^ "Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry Restored As Chief Justice of Pakistan". NowPublic. 2009-03-16. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/justice-iftikhar-chaudhry-restored-chief-justice-pakistan-photo-06. Retrieved 2009-04-22. 
  9. ^ a b Rohde, David (2007-11-03). "Musharraf Declares State of Emergency". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/world/asia/04pakistan.html?_r=1. Retrieved 2009-04-24. 
  10. ^ Supreme Court Decision CONSTITUTION PETITION NO. 09 and 08 OF 2009
  11. ^ "People of The Year". The Financial Daily (http://www.thefinancialdaily.com/). http://thefinancialdaily.com/NewsSearchResult/NewsSearchDetail.aspx?NewsId=67371. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
  12. ^ "Hameed Dogar sworn in as new Pakistan Chief Justice". Thaindian News. 2007-11-04. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/hameed-dogar-sworn-in-as-new-pakistan-chief-justice_1003682.html. Retrieved 2008-09-24. 
  13. ^ "Seven judges reject PCO before being sent home". Dawn. 2007-11-04. http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/04/top2.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-24. 
  14. ^ Associated Press of Pakistan (November 3, 2007). "سپریم کورٹ کے مسٹر جسٹس سید سعید اشہد نے پی سی او کے تحت حلف اٹھا لیا". Associated Press of Pakistan. http://www.app.com.pk/ud_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4538. Retrieved 2009-04-21. 
  15. ^ "14 Supreme Court, 4 FSC judges take oath under Constitution". Jang_Group_of_Newspapers#Daily_News. 2007-12-15. http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=33997. Retrieved 2009-04-24. 
  16. ^ |url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=84013 |date=2009-07-31 |url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=84013
  17. ^ a b "Justice Irshad replaces Justice Saeeduzzaman as Chief Justice of Pakistan". Apna Karachi. 2007-11-04. http://www.karachipage.com/news/Jan_00/012700.html. Retrieved 2009-04-22. 
  18. ^ "Justice Iftikhar ‘stayed’ emergency, PCO". Daily Times (Pakistan). 2007-11-04. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C11%5C04%5Cstory_4-11-2007_pg7_3. 
  19. ^ "SC hands out clean chit to Musharraf : •Emergency, PCO validated •Deposed judges criticised". Dawn. 2007-11-23. http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/24/top1.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-03. 
  20. ^ a b "SC issues detailed verdict validating PCO, emergency". Pakistan Observer. 2008-02-15. http://pakobserver.net/200802/15/news/topstories08.asp. Retrieved 2009-04-03. 
  21. ^ "Pak formally sacks deposed SC judges including Chaudhry". ZEE NEWS. December 5, 2007. http://www.zeenews.com/South-Asia/2007-12-05/411442news.html. Retrieved 2009-04-21. 
  22. ^ a b c "No new oath for Pakistani judge". BBC NEWS. 2009-03-17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7948516.stm. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 
  23. ^ "Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to be restored as Chief Justice of Pakistan". Geo.tv. 2008-11-15. http://www.geo.tv/3-16-2009/37454.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-15. 
  24. ^ "Zardari says he was waiting for Dogar’s retirement to reinstate Chaudhry". The GAEA NEWS. 2009-03-17. http://blog.taragana.com/n/zardari-says-he-was-waiting-for-dogars-retirement-to-reinstate-chaudhry-18444/. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 
  25. ^ Khaleeq Kiani. NBP deviates from ‘Saibaan’ policy 2008-02-12
  26. ^ Ansar Abbasi. CJ's daughter has a head start over thousands 2008-11-25
  27. ^ FBISE clarifies, The News rebuts 2008-11-26

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
Chief Justice of Pakistan (De facto)
2007–2009
Succeeded by
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry