President approves appointment of Justice Umar Ata Bandial as CJP

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has approved the appointment of Justice Umar Ata Bandial as the new Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), ARY News reported on Thursday.

President Dr Arif Alvi approved the appointment of Justice Umar Ata Bandial as the new CJP under the Constitution’s Article 175A.

Justice Bandial will assume the charge of his office on February 2 after the retirement of CJP Gulzar Ahmed on February 1.

Justice Bandial is the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court (SC).

Justice Umar Ata Bandial was born on September 17, 1958, in Lahore. He received his elementary and secondary education at different schools in Kohat, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Lahore.

He secured his B.A. (Economics) degree from Columbia University, USA followed by a Law Tripos degree from Cambridge University, UK and qualified as Barrister-at-Law from Lincoln’s Inn, London.

In 1983, he was enrolled as an Advocate of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and some years later, as an advocate of the Supreme Court (SC).

Justice Umar Ata Bandial had been elevated as an LHC judge on December 4, 2004.

He had declined oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) in November 2007 but he was restored as the LHC judge as a result of the lawyers and civil society movement for the revival of the Judiciary and Constitutional rule in the country.

Later, he had served for two years as the Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice until his elevation as the SC judge in June 2014.

During his career as an LHC judge, Justice Bandial rendered judgments on a number of important public law and private law issues. These include pronouncements on civil and commercial disputes, Constitutional rights and public interest matters.