Who is Justice (retd) Nasirul Mulk?

After days of deliberations, rumours followed by deadlocks, the government and the Opposition have now mutually agreed on the name of former chief justice (retd) Nasirul Mulk for the coveted slot of caretaker prime minister of Pakistan.

Justice (retd) Mulk served as the chief justice of Pakistan from July 2014 to August 2015 and his term was credited having a policy of ‘judicial restraint.’ In his tenure, he announced couple of important verdicts that will be remembered for long.

One of his major verdicts pertained to rigging allegations into 2013 general elections. Justice Nasir, along with two other fellow judges, had accepted the task of probing rigging claims in polls.

The commission headed by Mr. Mulk said in its 237-page report: “Despite some lapses on part of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the 2013 general elections were in large part organised and conducted fairly and in accordance with the law.”

All the major parties though praised his conduct during the proceedings of the inquiry commission. The verdict was contrary to the narrative of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf that was adamant that 2013 elections were engineered.

Justice Nasirul Mulk was also heading the bench that had rejected the plea to disqualify PM Nawaz Sharif for lying on the floor of the National Assembly.

A look into the profile

Born on August 17, 1950, in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Justice Nasirul Mulk is a barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, London.

He was elected as secretary general, Peshawar High Court Bar Association in 1981.

Before his appointment as judge of the Peshawar High Court on June 4, 1994, he served as advocate general of NWFP (now KP) for one year. He was elevated as chief justice of Peshawar High Court on May 31, 2004 and as a Supreme Court judge on April 4, 2005.

He is remembered for the way he conducted the contempt case against then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He convicted the then chief executive for 30 seconds while maintaining the dignity and honour of the court, and left the disqualification issue open to the Election Commission of Pakistan and the then speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Fehmida Mirza.

Justice Mulk was one of the seven judges who signed a restraining order on Nov 3, 2007, when retired Gen Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency and forcibly sent the judges home.

He was also sworn in as the acting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of Pakistan in November 2013.

Here’s the list of caretaker prime ministers who served Pakistan in erstwhile tenures.

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi from August 1990 to September 1990.

Mir Balakh Sher Mazari from April 1993 to May 1993.

Moin Ahmad Qureshi from July 1993 to October 1993.

Malik Meraj Khalid from November 1996 to February 1997.

Muhammad Mian Somoro from November 2007 to March 2008.

Justice (R) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso from March 2013 to June 2013.