Abdul Hameed Dogar

On 26 January 2000 the higher judiciary was asked to take fresh oath of office under the PCO 1999 by the Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf.[15] Justice Dogar as the sitting judge of Sindh High Court took oath.[15] On 31 July 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan unanimously declared in a judgement that Musharff's act of 3 November 2007 to impose the emergency as a Chief of Army Staff was unconstitutional and unlawful.[16] Consequently, in the absence of consultations made by the de jure Chief Justice of Pakistan, all the nominations made by the De facto Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar during his tenure were held to be null and void.[16]

On 3 November 2007, the then Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared emergency in Pakistan and issued a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). A seven bench supreme court bench headed by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued an order that declared emergency illegal and ordered that no judge shall take oath on PCO.[17]

Mr. Dogar along with 3 other judges immediately took the oath under PCO. Mr Dogar was appointed as the Chief Justice of this newly constituted Supreme Court.[5] On 23 November 2007, Mr Dogar and the newly constituted bench consisting of Ijaz-ul-Hassan Khan, Muhammad Qaim Jan Khan, Musa K. Leghari, Ch. Ijaz Yousaf, Muhammad Akhtar Shabbir and Zia Pervez declared that all judges, including the then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who did not take oath on PCO, are deemed to have been removed from the bench[18] .[19]

In a later development, on 3 December 2007 federal government issued notification of removal of three justices of Supreme Court without any retirement privileges. They were: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday.[20]

On 21 March 2009 when Mr. Justice Dogar retired from the bench as the Chief Justice of Pakistan,[3] the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was declared to have ceased to hold the office by the bench headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar,[19] was notified as restored to bench as Chief Justice.[3] Since Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry after 3 November 2007 was not re-appointed as Justice[21] and also never re-took oath of office,[21] legality of appointment of Mr Dogar as Chief Justice is questionable and Mr Dogar is considered as a de facto Chief Justice rather than de jure.[21][22][23][24]

Mr. Justice Dogar purchased a house which was already on loan granted to earlier owner. Thus, the same liability was transferred on him. A loan of Rs. 8.93 million from the National Bank of Pakistan has been paid by him and nothing is outstanding any more.[25]

In 2008, an investigative report by The News International found out that Justice Dogar's daughter Farah Hameed Dogar examination paper for F.Sc. were reassessed in violation of previous Supreme Court rulings.[26] While the results of 201 candidates were revised,[27] only for Farah were the examination papers re-marked and the numbers increased. In the other 200 cases, only errors in adding the total marks were corrected.[28]