KARACHI, Feb 14: Justice Mushir Alam on Monday took the oath as the 21st chief justice of the Sindh High Court. He replaced Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany who along with Justice Amir Hani Muslim was elevated to the Supreme Court. Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad administered the oath to the chief justice. Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza and senior minister Pir Mazharul Haq attended the oath-taking ceremony, which was held on the SHC premises for the first time.

Chief Justice Mushir Alam later speaking to journalists said that a meeting of SHC judges would be held on Saturday to deliberate upon and work out a comprehensive policy to bring about improvement in the judicial system, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution so that the cases involving elderly people, women and children could be disposed of expeditiously.

Born to a lawyer family, the 54-year-old judge did his LLB from the S.M. Law College and joined the Karachi Bar Association in 1981.

Justice Alam, whose father Mohammad Akram was himself an acclaimed lawyer of his times, was enrolled as an advocate of the high court in 1983 and also held the offices of the honorary joint secretary and general secretary of the Sindh High Court Bar Association.

He was an elected member of the Sindh Bar Council and appointed a federal counsel for the government before being elevated to the SHC bench on April 20, 1990.

Justice Alam had also taken the oath under the provisional constitution order of General Pervez Musharraf in 1999, but he repeatedly termed it his wrong decision and later refused to take the oath subsequent to emergency imposed on Nov 3, 2007 following the decision of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Prior to his judicial responsibilities, Justice Alam worked for the All-Pakistan Trade Union Congress, an affiliate of Brotherhood of Asian Trade Union, and the Workers Confederation of Labour. He was also nominated as a link person in Pakistan for the implementation of International Labour Standard or ILO norms in Pakistan.

The judicial commission for judges’ appointment unanimously nominated Justice Mushir Alam as new chief justice of the SHC on Jan 22. The recommendation was taken up by the parliamentary committee, which approved his nomination. Both the commission and the committee have been set up under the 18th Amendment and reaffirmed by the 19th Amendment.

President Asif Ali Zardari approved Justice Alam’s appointment as the SHC chief justice and elevation of two other SHC judges to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Feb 11.