Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was sworn in as the 25th chief justice of Pakistan on Saturday.

Justice Nisar has replaced Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali who retired on Friday after serving as chief justice for 15 months since his appointment in September 2015.

President Mamnoon Hussain administered the oath to Justice Nisar at a ceremony held at the presidency. The president had appointed Justice Nisar as the country's top judge on Dec 7.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, chairman Senate, speaker National Assembly, federal ministers, services chiefs, parliamentarians, diplomats and judges of the apex court attended the ceremony.

In April this year, Justice Nisar served as the acting CJP in the absence of Chief Justice Jamali who had gone to Turkey on a seven-day official visit, Dawn reported.

Justice Nisar has been a judge of the apex court since Feb 18, 2010. Before that he was a judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC).

Before being appointed as a judge, he was member of the Supreme Court Bar Associa­tion and Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA). He was elected as secretary general of the LHCBA in 1991.

Born on Jan 18, 1954, in Lahore, Justice Nisar did his matriculation from the Cath­edral High School, Lahore, graduation from the Gover­n­ment College, Lahore, and bac­h­elor of law from the Uni­versity of Punjab in 1979-80.

He joined the legal profession as an advocate on May 2, 1980. He was enrolled as an advocate of the high court in 1982 and advocate of the Supreme Court in 1994.

He was elevated as the judge of the high court on May 22, 1998, and of the Supreme Court on Feb 18, 2010.

Justice Nisar specialised in civil, commercial, tax and constitutional laws and appeared in a large number of important constitutional cases both in the LHC and the Supreme Court.

He was appointed as the federal law secretary on March 29, 1997, when he became the first member of the bar to be appointed to the important position.

Justice Nisar represented Pakistan in an international conference held at the Wilton Park, United Kingdom, on the subject of “Pakistan and India at Fifty”.

He led a Pakistani delegation to a conference in Manila on the subject of “Asia Region Transitional Crimes”. He also attended conferences in Switzerland and Norway.

He had also been a part-time lecturer at the Punjab Law College and Pakistan College of Law, where he taught civil procedure code and the Constitution.

Nishan-i-Imtiaz conferred on Gen Hayat, Gen Bajwa

Earlier in the ceremony, President Mamnoon conferred Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Military) on Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat and Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa in recognition of their services.

Gen Bajwa, a career infantry officer belonging to the Baloch Regiment, was chosen as Pakistan's next Chief of Army Staff and Gen Hayat as the CJCSC last month.