Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid

Age: 80

Favoured by PTI

Known for his unflinching principles, Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid was born in Mussoorie, India in 1935 and completed his early education from the St Patrick’s High School in Karachi before graduating from Lahore’s Government College in 1954. His passion for law took him to the University of Cambridge and he was called to the Bar in 1956.

Upon his return to Pakistan, he enrolled as an advocate at the Sindh High Court the following year and at the Supreme Court in 1962. In 1980, he was elevated to the bench of the Sindh High Court and made a permanent judge three years later. In 1988, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party government sent him off on deputation as the federal law secretary, a post which he held until 1990. The following year, he briefly served in the Supreme Court as an ad hoc judge before taking over as the Chief Justice of Sindh in 1992. After this came a spell at the Supreme Court, where, although lawfully he should have been appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he was instead made permanent judge.

He was moved to the Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan for two years (1994-1996), a move he termed as his 'punishment'.

Zahid's eventful career climaxed in a way in 2000, when he resigned instead of taking oath under Pervez Musharraf’s Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).

In 2002, he was unanimously elected as the chief of the Institute of Behavioural Sciences and the following year, he initiated a Legal Aid Office for female under trial prisoners and convicts confined at the Special Prison for Women in Karachi.

Zahid has also served as Federal Secretary, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Sindh.

Currently, Zahid is serving as the Dean, Faculty of Legal Studies and Head of Hamdard School of Law at Hamdard University

Justice (r) Tassaduq Hussain Jillani

Age: 65

Favoured by all parties except PTI

Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, a front-runner for the office of the chief election commissioner (CEC), has already served as an acting CEC from August 17 to November 30, 2013, before assuming the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) in December 2013 after the retirement of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Jillani, who also refused to take oath under Pervez Musharraf’s Provisional Constitutional Order, was born in Multan on July 6, 1949. He completed his Masters in Political Science from Forman Christian College and LLB from the University of Punjab, Lahore. He completed a course in constitutional law from the University of London at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

He started his practice at the Multan district courts in 1974 and two years later was elected general secretary of the district bar association. He was elected member of the Punjab Bar Council in 1978 and appointed assistant advocate general of Punjab the following year.

Jillani enrolled as advocate of the Supreme Court in 1983 and was appointed additional advocate general of Punjab in 1993.

He took oath as a judge of the Lahore High Court on Aug 7, 1994 and was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on July 31, 2004 where he served until the imposition of the state of emergency in 2007 under Musharraf. He took oath again as a judge of the Supreme Court in 2008 and retired in July 2014 after serving for over 10 years as a judge, including a brief tenure as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Jillani was viewed as a liberal and polite judge who, despite only serving as the CJP for seven months had issued some landmark judgments.

The verdict ordering the protection of minorities’ constitutional rights and ordering law-enforcement agencies to promptly register criminal cases over the desecration of their places of worship was a much-welcome and bold move under the prevailing circumstances in the country.

“I always keep them (minorities) close to my heart,” the former chief justice had once said. An order to move the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to draft a new policy for the registration of parentless or orphaned children was also a highlight in his career as a judge.

His choices when it came to appointing judges in the superior judiciary during his short term in office have also been lauded.

Justice (r) Tariq Pervez

Age: 66

Favoured by all parties

Justice (r) Tariq Pervez’s time in the spotlight came when in November 2007, while serving as chief justice of the Peshawar High Court, he refused to take oath under Provisional Constitutional Order and joined the movement for restoration of an independent judiciary.

Pervez was born on February 15, 1948 in Peshawar and obtained his early education to the graduate level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial capital. He graduated in Law in 1971 from University of Peshawar’s Faculty of Law and did his Masters in Political Science in 1975.

As the chief justice of Peshawar High Court, Pervez earned great respect from the legal fraternity. Steadfast in his approach, he had delivered judgments on issues like possession of forged graduation degrees by parliamentarians and barred elected members of union councils from contesting elections for nazim of district, town and tehsil councils, etc in cases of perjury.

Pervez, too, was restored along with several other judges of superior courts on September 5, 2008. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in October 20, 2009 and retired from that post on February 14, 2013.

Pervez also served as caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year.

Justice (r) Rana Bhagwandas

Age: 72

Name is being considered but has expressed unwillingness to take up the role

Justice (r) Rana Bhagwandas was born on December 20, 1942 in Naseerabad, Larkana District (now Qamber Shahdadkot District) in Sindh and has a postgraduate degree in Islamic Studies.

He is considered an expert on constitutional law and was a practising advocate for about two years before being appointed to the bench in July 1967.

He was made a judge of the Sindh High Court in June 1994. A challenge to his appointment to the higher judiciary on the grounds that he was a non-Muslim was dismissed by the Sindh High Court in 2002.

Justice (r) Rana Bhagwandas became the acting Chief Justice of Pakistan when the incumbent Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry went on foreign tours in 2005 and 2006 and thus became the first Hindu and the second non-Muslim to serve as a chief of the highest court in Pakistan.

He has also served as chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission.