Abdul Hameed Dogar

Abdul Hameed Dogar is a Pakistani jurist who served as the former Justice of Sindh High Court, before being appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan by President Pervez Musharraf, after he dismissed the superior judiciary and declared emergency rule in 2007.

Following the Proclamation of Emergency by General Pervez Musharraf as Chief of Army Staff, on 3 November 2007, Justice Dogar took oath on PCO and was administered the oath of office of Chief Justice of Pakistan.

After Musharraf's resignation, the judiciary was restored in 2009. On 31 July 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that the oath taking under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) was not legal and 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, the Supreme Court 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.

Life Justice Dogar was born in the village of Gaarhi Mori, in Khairpur District, Sindh province. He passed LLB from Law College, Punjab University, Lahore in 1969. He was enrolled as Advocate in 1970 and practiced law for 25 years before his elevation to judiciary. He was also nominated as Acting Chief Election Commissioner from 10 July 2004 to 3 August 2004, from 30 November 2004 to 6 December 2004 and 15 February 2005 to 16 March 2006.

Following the Proclamation of Emergency by Chief of Army Staff Earlier a 7-member bench of the Supreme Court had overturned the PCO. Dogar was one of the only four sitting judges in Supreme Court who immediately took oath under the PCO 2007 on 3 November 2007, when the majority of Supreme Court judges refused to take oath under the PCO.

Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar took a new oath on 15 December 2007, this time on the constitution. He retired from Supreme Court on 21 March 2009.

Controversies

Oath on PCO 1999 On 26 January 2000 the higher judiciary was asked to take fresh oath of office under the PCO 1999 by the Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf. Justice Dogar as the sitting judge of Sindh High Court took oath. Consequently, in the absence of consultations made by the de jure Chief Justice of Pakistan, all the nominations made by the De facto Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar during his tenure were held to be null and void.

Dogar along with three other judges immediately took the oath under PCO. Dogar was appointed as the Chief Justice of this newly constituted Supreme Court.

In a later development, on 3 December 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.

On 21 March 2009, when Justice Dogar retired from the bench as the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and also never re-took oath of office,

Reassessment of daughter's FSC results In 2008, an investigative report by The News International found out that Justice Dogar's daughter Farah Hameed Dogar examination paper for F.Sc. were reassessed in violation of previous Supreme Court rulings. While the results of 201 candidates were revised, only for Farah were the examination papers remarked and the numbers increased. In the other 200 cases, only errors in adding the total marks were corrected.