Nisar was born in 1954 in Lahore, West Punjab, into a Punjabi MuslimArain family. His father, Mian Nisar was an advocate.[4] Nisar was educated at the Cathedral High School no 1 in Lahore where he matriculated and enrolled at Government College University (GCU) where he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1977.[5] He later joined Punjab University Law College where he secured LLB in civil law in 1980.[6] He took active part in co-curricular activities during his study. He was also a part of Law College's debating society.
Soon after his graduation with a law degree, Nisar enrolled as an advocate and began private practice of law at the District Court in 1980. In 1982, he enrolled as an advocate of the Lahore High Court.[8] He practiced law as an advocate for a decade until he enrolled as an advocate Supreme Court in 1992, subsequently relocating to Islamabad.[9] In 1991, he was elected as a Secretary-General of the Lahore High Court bar.[10]
On 22 May 1998, he was elevated as judge at the Lahore High Court after a nomination summary sent by Prime Minister Sharif, only to be confirmed as judge of Lahore High Court by then-PresidentRafiq Tarrar.[12] As a judge in Lahore High Court, he heard and passed judgements on many important cases involving the resolution of disputes on the civil matters, commercial banking disputes, and tax evasions/avoidances.[12]
In 2000, Nisar was among those judges at the Lahore High Court, who when given chance to either resign or accept military provisional constitutional order enacted by Military Dictator General Musharraf, took the oath under the new provisional constitutional order and was continue to allow hearing cases at the Lahore High Court.[13]
Academia
Nisar is known for his educational interests in legal education, and is currently tenuring as visiting professor of law at the Law College of the Punjab University where he provides instructions on the constitutional law and civil law procedure.[14] Nisar attended and represented Pakistan in the international conference on "India and Pakistan at Fifty" held in Wilton Park in United Kingdom; he also led judicial delegations on conferences held in the Philippines and Switzerland.[15]
On 13 February 2010, his nomination to be elevated as the justice of the Supreme Court was initially rejected by the then-PresidentAsif Ali Zardari in spite of recommendation made by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.[16] President Zardari instead elevated Justice K.M. Sharif that ultimately supersedes senior-most Justice Nisar for the promotion, appointing the latter as acting Chief Justice of Lahore High Court.[16]
Upon hearing these developments, Chief Justice Chaudhry suspended the appointment order and marked such actions as "unconstitutional", using his constitutional powers granted by the Judicial Commission.[17]
On 19 February 2010, Nisar, was sworn as justice of the Supreme Court.[18]
Notable cases
He was a member of the Supreme Court bench which heard the case against 21st Constitutional Amendment, the amendment which authorized the establishment of military courts to hear terrorism cases after the incident which killed 141 people including 132 children in a school in Peshawar on 16 December 2014.[19]
Judicial activism and allegations of nexus with the military
Nisar has been criticized by some notable academics, journalists, and politicians for his judicial activism and over-involvement in the day-to-day affairs of the government.[21][22] He is accused of being in alliance with Pakistan's military establishment against Pakistan Muslim League (N), Nawaz Sharif and his government which was ousted in July 2017.[23][24]
Despite Election Commission of Pakistan ordering to provide security to all candidates contesting in General Elections 2018, he ordered removal of security[25] from all non-government but high profile politicians, most of who had been part of the previous governments which included PML(N) and JUI politicians. Some of them has been under threat from terrorists including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. This was seen by many political parties as political victimization. Their claim was further strengthened when a leader of ANP, Mr Bilour was killed by suicide bomber on 10 July 2018 in Peshawar during election campaign.[26] Raisani and 127 others were killed on 13 July 2018.[27]
^From the Newspapers, Staff reporters (10 September 2011). "Saqib Nisar's father laid to rest". DAWN.COM. Dawn Newspapers, 2011. Dawn Newspapers. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
^Sattar, Babar (6 September 2008). "Cherry picking again". www.thenews.com.pk. Islamabad: News International, 2008. News International. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
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