Javed Iqbal (); (born 1 August 1946) is the retired

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of the

National Accountability Bureau The National Accountability Bureau (; abbreviated NAB) is Pakistan's anti-corruption agency. Its chairman is Nazir Ahmed Butt, a retired general. History The Ehtesab Act, 1997 established an Ehtesab Cell, charged with the investigation and pr ...

(NAB) of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, in office from 11 October 2017 to 3 June 2022. He is also a retired Senior Justice of the

Supreme Court of Pakistan The Supreme Court of Pakistan (; ''Adālat-e-Uzma Pākistān'') is the apex court in the Judiciary of Pakistan, judicial hierarchy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Established in accordance witPart VIIof the Constitution of Pakistan, it h ...

. Harassment allegations have been made against him by some accused criminals that he prosecuted during his tenure, but no court action taken or evidence has been produced so far to prove the allegations. A

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and professor of law in Pakistan by profession, he served as the Senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan from 2004 until his retirement in 2011. Prior to the appointment at the Supreme Court, Justice Iqbal shortly tenured as the Chief Justice of the

Balochistan High Court The Balochistan High Court () is the highest judicial institution of Balochistan, Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, ...

which lasted only a month. During his career as jurist, he has heard and led high-profile cases, including the case of the

suspension of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was made a "non-functional Chief Justice" on 9 March 2007. In so acting, President Pervez Musharraf invoked two main clauses of the Constitution of Pakistan. The suspension evoked a nation ...

, a fellow chief justice, and the trial of

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in 2012. His credentials led to the government appointing him as a chairman of the Abbottabad Commission to find out the preludes and causes of the 2 May 2011 military raid that caused the

death of Osama Bin Laden Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

, conducted by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Abbottabad Abbottabad is a city in the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in the country and 6th largest in the province by population, and serves as the headquarter of its namesake tehsil and district ...

, Pakistan. After carefully studying the case, Iqbal authored the Abbottabad Commission Report over this issue which was submitted to the

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan (, Roman Urdu, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Cabinet of Pakistan, cabinet, desp ...

in 2013.

Biography

Early life and education

Javed Iqbal was born on 1 August 1946 and raised in

Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...

. After graduating from the Sandman High School (SHC) in Quetta, he moved to

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, Punjab Province to study law. Admitted at the

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a state university in Kapurthala, Punjab * Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Techn ...

, he obtained an

LLB A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree in 1968, and an MA degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

in 1970 from

. For his advanced studies, Iqbal went to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

where he attended the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, subsequently submitting his thesis to obtain an

LLM A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with Self-supervised learning, self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially Natural language generation, language g ...

degree in

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

in 1971.

Professorship and judicature career

In 1971, he moved to his native city,

, where he became

public prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible ...

and government pleader at the

. In 1973, he joined the law branch of the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

Balochistan Province Balochistan (; ; , ) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khybe ...

which he retained until 1977. Iqbal later acted as the Deputy Secretary at the Law Department in 1981 and later served as the Officiating Secretary Law until 1982. The same year he resigned from the provincial government's legal branch after accepting a

professorship Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

at the Balochistan University and became an honorary lecturer at Balochistan University. In 1982, he was appointed a session judge at the

district court District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy. These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...

, and gave verdicts in

anti-corruption Anti-corruption (or anticorruption) comprises activities that oppose or inhibit corruption. Just as corruption takes many forms, anti-corruption efforts vary in scope and in strategy. A general distinction between preventive and reactive measur ...

and custom cases. In 1985, Iqbal attended the

International Islamic University The International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) is an Islamic public university located in Islamabad, Pakistan.

(IIU) in Islamabad where he gained a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

where his thesis contained the work on

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

in Islamic ''

Faqīh A ''faqīh'' (: ''fuqahāʾ'', ; : ‏‎) is an Islamic jurist, an expert in ''fiqh'', or Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic law. Definition Islamic jurisprudence or ''fiqh'' is the human understanding of Sharia, which is believed ...

'' and ''Sharia'' laws, in 1987. During the same period, he attended an advanced course National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) In 1988, he was also appointed the Judicial Member, Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal, but the Government of Balochistan did not relieve him. In 1990, he became Registrar of the

which he retained until 1993.

Senior Justice

Balochistan High Court

In 1993, Justice Iqbal was elevated as additional judge at the

and was confirmed as "justice" by the

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

in 1995. In 1999, he was one of the judges in the country who retook their oaths under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), following the aftermath of the

military coup d'état A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

staged by Chairman joint chiefs General

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

. On immediate effect, he was appointed the Chief Justice of

on 4 February 2000 which then was approved by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Rafiq Tarar Muhammad Rafiq Tarar (; ; 2 November 1929 – 7 March 2022) was a Pakistani politician and jurist who served as the ninth president of Pakistan from January 1998 until his resignation in June 2001, and prior to that as a senator from Punjab in 1 ...

. This promotion was short-lived as Justice Iqbal was elevated as a "Senior Justice" of the

on 28 April 2000.

Supreme Court appointments

When the Presidential Reference against Chief Justice

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (; born 12 December 1948) is a Pakistani jurist who served as the 20th Chief Justice of Pakistan over three non-consecutive terms from 29 June 2005 to 11 December 2013. Chaudhry began practice as an advocate of the S ...

was filed on 9 March 2007, Iqbal served as acting

Chief Justice of Pakistan The chief justice of Pakistan ( initials as CJP; , ''Munsif-e-Āzam Pākistān'') is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and is the highest-ranking officer of the Pakistani judiciary. The Federal Court of Pakistan was establis ...

from 9 March 2007 until 23 March 2007. Iqbal refused to take oath on Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) on 3 November 2007. As the result he was removed from the Supreme Court along with eleven other judges. Later he was appointed to the position of chairman of the Press Council of Pakistan (PCP) for three years on 11 November 2007. He announced on 12 April 2008 that he had resigned from that position. On 17 March 2009 as the result of the lawyer and civil society movement for restoration of judiciary, Justice Iqbal was restored to the position of 2 November 2007 on the bench of supreme court.

Important cases

On 13 April 2005, a bench headed by, then Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, with other members of bench being

Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (; born 12 December 1948) is a Pakistani jurist who served as the 20th Chief Justice of Pakistan over three non-consecutive terms from 29 June 2005 to 11 December 2013. Chaudhry began practice as an advocate of the S ...

, Javed Iqbal, Abdul Hameed Dogar and Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, unanimously dismissed all petitions challenging the 17th Constitutional Amendment and the dual office of General

as the President as well as the Chief of Army Staff. However, a decision in a case relating to the retirement age of the superior court judges was withheld. On 28 September 2007, Javed Iqbal along with Abdul Hameed Dogar, M. Javed Buttar, Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, and Falak Sher formed a majority opinion in holding that petition challenging General

candidature for the second term as the president as non-maintainable. Head of the bench Rana Bhagwandas, with two other members Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan and Mian Shakirullah Jan dissented. On 3 November 2007, Iqbal was the member of seven-panel bench headed by

which unanimously declared the 2007 Pakistani state of emergency as illegal and passed an order restraining all judges of Supreme Court and High Courts from taking oath under Provisional Constitutional Order. The other members of the bench were Rana Bhagwandas, Mian Shakirullah Jan, Nasir-ul-Mulk, Raja Muhammad Fayyaz Ahmad, and Ghulam Rabbani (Judge Supreme Court), Ghulam Rabbani.

Writings and literature

*Iqbal, Senior Justice Javed, "The Role of the Judiciary as a Catalyst of Change", ''

Press Registrar.'' 9 July 2013. *Iqbal, Senior Justice Javed, et al. " Abbottabad Commission Report"

References

Profile from the BBC Urdu serviceBBC News about the arrest of Chief Justice ChaudhryMovement for Rule of Law - Profiles - Justice Javed Iqbal
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Iqbal, Javaid 1946 births People from Quetta University of the Punjab alumni University of Western Australia alumni Academic staff of the University of Balochistan Chief justices of Pakistan Chief justices of the Balochistan High Court 20th-century Pakistani philosophers Abbottabad Commission International law scholars International Islamic University, Islamabad alumni Living people Chairmen of the National Accountability Bureau 21st-century Pakistani philosophers