Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui

Who is Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui?

Chief Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, is a Pakistani Jurist and legislator of great prominence who formerly served as the Chief Justice of Pakistan at the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He was the Chief Justice of Pakistan when the 1999 military coup d'état was staged by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf. Notably, he defied the request given by Musharraf via the Law Minister and Legal Adviser Sharifuddin Pirzada to take a new oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order saying that: "Taking an oath under the PCO, in my opinion, will be a deviation from the oath I had taken to defend the constitution of 1973". The PCO not only negated the independence of the judiciary and democratic norms, but also prolonged the martial law by nullifying the effect of any judgement given against General Musharraf's regime.

As a consequence of this, he was forced to step down from his position, by the military regime. The tenure time period was shortened due to his refusal to take the Provisional Constitutional Order Oath, prescribed by General Pervez Musharraf to legitimize the LFO. After a long discussion with 4 Army generals sent to his residence by General Musharraf; namely, Lieutenant-General Moinuddin Haider, who was Interior Minister,then-Lieutenant-General Ehsan ul Haq, Core-commander of the XI Corps, Lieutenant-General Mahmud Ahmed, then-Director General of the ISI and Brigadier-General Javed Ashraf Bajwa; Chief Justice Siddiqui refused to take the Oath after which the Generals left and on orders of the GHQ was executed, which had authorized the house arrest of him and his family.