The indisputable king of suo motos started practicing law at Sindh High Court in 1976, and 37 years later, finally retired on December 11, 2013. Along the way he served as President Balochistan Bar Association, Chief Justice Balochistan High Court and Chairman of Pakistan Red Crescent Society Balochistan before being appointed to the Supreme Court in Islamabad. A man credited with establishing the judiciary as an immovable pillar of a just democracy, his Excellency took over dozens of suo moto notices of cases including a controversy involving his own son.
The man left behind a controversial legacy, but his courage against both the civil and military establishment is irrefutable. The only man to have ever retroactively ousted a sitting Prime Minister and his cabinet, the honorable Iftikhar Chaudhary would have dispensed his unique brand of justice to Gillani’s successor as well, had the dissolution of the federal government due to elections not interrupted the process. The privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills, LFO 2002, Shahzeb Khan murde, EOBI scam, rental power project, petroleum products price hikes, missing persons, Karachi violence, the list of case the CJP deemed fit to take on seems endless. Despite having forever etched the term ‘suo moto’ onto our national vocabulary, we may never the likes of Iftikhar Chaudry again.
But then again, the newly appointed CJP, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani immediately took a suo moto, indicating that perhaps his predecessor’s legacy will continue unabated.
