January 17, 2019:

On Thursday, Pakistan's controversial 'celebrity' chief justice (CJ), Mian Saqib Nisar gets retire. His two-year tenure has been defined by extravagant judicial activism, often exceeding the powers of his office.

While his stint as Chief Justice began in a relatively well measured and prudent fashion, somewhere along the way, Justice Nisar upped the ante and assumed a more assertive posture—heralding the 'age of Justice Nisar'.

Nisar soon became a troubleshooter for the state and the society alike. He left  the Supreme Court (SC) building with a pile of pending cases. During his tenure, the number of pending cases in the SC increased from around 38,000 in 2017 to over 40,000 by the end of 2018.

Under Mian Saqib Nisar, the Pakistani Judiciary had an overstepping problem with his surprise visits to the prisons. Justice Nisar would issue fiery orders on the spot to fix issues of the visiting departments.

During court hearings, delivering remarks that would become headlines and talking points in several dozen TV talk shows.

His verbal spat with veteran journalist Hussain Naqi and Vice-Chancellor of Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) Professor Uzma Qureshi, his controversial remarks comparing the length of speeches with women mini-skirts and his decision to avoid naming Hindus during an address with lawyers in Quetta, continued to dominate debate circles for many months.

He has given remarkable judgements. For instance, his judgment on the regularization of Imran Khan's Bani Gala residence and Grand Hyatt in Islamabad is not exactly in line with the SC's recent verdict on the retrieval of state lands from encroachers.

He also barred Govt. employees from holding dual nationality but allowed Special Assistant to PM Zulfi Bukhari to run office without giving up his British nationality.

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