ISLAMABAD: Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa was sworn in as Pakistan’s new Supreme Court chief justice on Friday at a ceremony attended by top civilian and military leaders, diplomats and foreign dignitaries.
President Dr. Arif Alvi administered oath to the country’s top judge before an audience that included Prime Minister Imran Khan, Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and other top government and military officials.
“I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favor,” Khosa said as he read out the oath.
The incoming chief justice is known as a competent and proficient judge, and has decided around 55,000 cases in a career spanning over two decades long career.
“The legal fraternity expects him [Khosa] to devise a permanent mechanism to clear backlog of around 1.9 million cases pending in the courts as justice delayed is justice denied,” said Habibullah Khan, a senior lawyer of Supreme Court, adding that unlike his predecessor who had cultivated a reputation for judicial activism, Khosa would act as a more classical judge.
At outgoing chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar’s full court reference on Thursday, Justice Khosa said that he would try his best to remove delays in the disposition of cases at all levels of the judicial hierarchy.
In reference to the outgoing chief justice’s crusade to raise funds to build dams in Pakistan, Khosa said on Thursday: “I would also like to build some dams, a dam against undue and unnecessary delays in judicial determination of cases, a dam against frivolous litigation and a dam against fake witnesses and false testimonies and would also try to retire a debt, the debt of pending cases which must be decided at the earliest possible.”
Khosa said that he was aware of the problems in the judicial system, “but I may assure you that no stone shall be left unturned in attending to such issues and in trying to improve the situation.”
Khosa is known to have a penchant for literary quotations and began the 2017 verdict in the Panama Papers case with the line “Behind every great fortune there is a crime” from the popular 1969 novel, “The Godfather,” by Mario Puzo.
Khosa headed the bench that upheld the death penalty for Mumtaz Qadri who murdered Punjab governor Salman Taseer in 2015 for supporting a woman wrongly accused of blasphemy, and was also part of the bench that acquitted a poor, Christian woman in a landmark blasphemy case after eight years on death row.
Khosa will retire on December 21 this year.
Asif Khosa sworn in as Pakistan’s new chief justice
Asif Khosa sworn in as Pakistan’s new chief justice
- Vows to tackle delays in disposal of cases
- Expected to be less activist than his predecessor
Pakistan stock market sees 41% rise in investors in 18 months
- Pakistan’s stock market has gained momentum at start of year on broad-based institutional buying
- The rise in the stock market reflects global investors’ confidence in the country, state media says
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange has witnessed a 41% increase in the number of investors over the past 18 months, Pakistani state broadcaster reported on Friday.
Pakistani stock market has gained momentum in recent months as broad-based institutional buying across key sectors has reinforced investor confidence even as the country continues to navigate economic reforms under international lending programs.
Around 135,000 new investors have joined the PSX over the last 18 months, the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“Pakistan’s stock market has emerged as the second-best performing market globally,” the report said. “The rise in the stock market reflects global investors’ confidence in Pakistan’s improved investment environment.”
The development came as the PSX shed a little more than 1,000 points as it closed the weekend session at 184,519 points.
The report said coordinated efforts by Pakistan’s Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) have helped stabilize the country’s economy and investment market, elevating it to prominence at the global level.
“Pakistan’s macroeconomic environment has become an attractive and reliable destination for investment,” it quoted Finance Adviser Khurram Schehzad as saying.
On Wednesday, Pakistani stocks climbed to a fresh all-time high with the benchmark KSE-100 Index crossing the 186,000-point mark for the first time as potential foreign inflows upheld the positive sentiment.
