Islamabad, Pakistan – As Umar Ata Bandial prepares to hang up his robe on Saturday, ending his tenure as Pakistan’s 28th chief justice, his detractors and supporters say he will be remembered as one of the most polarising top judges in the country’s history, who leaves behind a “tarnished legacy”.
The Lahore-born jurist’s tenure as the chief justice lasted for about 20 months after he took over in February 2022 as the South Asian country faced a serious political crisis.
As he came to the top court, the then-opposition coalition, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), was striving to topple the government, headed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, through a parliamentary vote of no confidence.
Within two months of taking charge, Bandial faced his first major legal challenge when he declared that the then-deputy speaker of parliament’s decision to dissolve the house was “unconstitutional”.
With the top court’s five-member bench headed by Bandial ordering the restoration of the National Assembly, the stage was set for Khan’s removal as the PDM alliance moved a no-confidence motion against the government.
The removal of Khan in April last year set in motion a chain of events with reverberations that can still be felt in Pakistani politics today. For the next 18 months, Bandial found himself arbitrating on a deluge of petitions, often political, making him a deeply polarising figure in the country.
Post from www.aljazeera.com