Javed Iqbal (Urdu:جاوید اقبال) (born 1 August 1946) is the retiredchairman of theNational Accountability Bureau (NAB) ofPakistan, in office from 11 October 2017 to 3 June 2022. He is also a retiredSenior Justice of theSupreme Court of Pakistan.[1][2]
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.[3][4][5][6]
Ajurist and professor oflaw 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 theChief Justice of theBalochistan High Court which lasted only a month.
During his career as jurist, he has heard and led high-profile cases, including the case of thesuspension of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a fellow chief justice, and the trial ofmissing persons in 2012. His credentials led to the government appointing him as a chairman of theAbbottabad Commission to find out the preludes and causes of the 2 May 2011 military raid that caused thedeath of Osama Bin Laden, conducted by theUnited States inAbbottabad, Pakistan. After carefully studying the case, Iqbal authored theAbbottabad Commission Report over this issue which was submitted to thePrime Minister of Pakistan in 2013.
Javed Iqbal was born on 1 August 1946 and raised inQuetta. After graduating from the Sandman High School (SHC) in Quetta, he moved toLahore,Punjab Province to study law.[7]
Admitted at thePunjab University, he obtained anLLB degree in 1968, and anMA degree inpolitical science in 1970 fromPunjab University.[8] For his advanced studies, Iqbal went toAustralia where he attended theUniversity of Western Australia, subsequently submitting his thesis to obtain anLLM degree ininternational law in 1971.[9]
In 1971, he moved to his native city,Quetta, where he becamepublic prosecutor and government pleader at theBalochistan High Court.[8] In 1973, he joined the law branch of theGovernment ofBalochistan Province which he retained until 1977.[8] 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 theprovincial government's legal branch after accepting aprofessorship inlaw at theBalochistan University and became an honorary lecturer atBalochistan University.[8]
In 1982, he was appointed a session judge at thedistrict court, and gave verdicts inanti-corruption and custom cases.[10] In 1985, Iqbal attended theInternational Islamic University (IIU) in Islamabad where he gained amaster's degree inIslamic law where his thesis contained the work onjurisprudence in IslamicFaqīh andSharia laws, in 1987. During the same period, he attended an advanced courseNational Institute of Public Administration (NIPA)[7] 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 theBalochistan High Court which he retained until 1993.[10]
In 1993, Justice Iqbal was elevated as additional judge at theBalochistan High Court and was confirmed as "justice" by theGovernor ofBalochistan Province in 1995.[10] In 1999, he was one of the judges in the country who retook their oaths under theProvisional Constitutional Order (PCO), following the aftermath of themilitary coup d'état staged byChairman joint chiefs GeneralPervez Musharraf.[7] On immediate effect, he was appointed the Chief Justice ofBalochistan High Court on 4 February 2000 which then was approved byPresidentRafiq Tarar.[11] This promotion was short-lived as Justice Iqbal was elevated as a"Senior Justice" of theSupreme Court of Pakistan on 28 April 2000.[11]
When the Presidential Reference againstChief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was filed on 9 March 2007, Iqbal served as actingChief Justice of Pakistan from 9 March 2007 until 23 March 2007.[12]
Iqbal refused to take oath onProvisional Constitutional Order (PCO) on 3 November 2007. As the result he was removed from the Supreme Court along with eleven other judges.[13]
Later he was appointed to the position of chairman of the Press Council of Pakistan (PCP) for three years on 11 November 2007.[14] He announced on 12 April 2008 that he had resigned from that position.[15] 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.
On 13 April 2005, a bench headed by, then Chief JusticeNazim Hussain Siddiqui, with other members of bench beingIftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Javed Iqbal,Abdul Hameed Dogar and Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, unanimously dismissed all petitions challenging the 17th Constitutional Amendment and the dual office of GeneralPervez Musharraf as the President as well as theChief of Army Staff. However, a decision in a case relating to the retirement age of the superior court judges was withheld.[16][17]
On 28 September 2007, Javed Iqbal along withAbdul Hameed Dogar,M. Javed Buttar,Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, andFalak Sher formed a majority opinion in holding that petition challenging GeneralPervez Musharraf candidature for the second term as the president as non-maintainable. Head of the benchRana Bhagwandas, with two other membersSardar Muhammad Raza Khan andMian Shakirullah Jan dissented.[18]
On 3 November 2007, Iqbal was the member of seven-panel bench headed byIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry which unanimously declared the2007 Pakistani state of emergency as illegal and passed an order restraining all judges of Supreme Court and High Courts from taking oath underProvisional Constitutional Order. The other members of the bench wereRana Bhagwandas,Mian Shakirullah Jan,Nasir-ul-Mulk,Raja Muhammad Fayyaz Ahmad, and Ghulam Rabbani (Judge Supreme Court)|Ghulam Rabbani.[19]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chief Justice of theBalochistan High Court 2000 | Succeeded by |
| Chief Justice of Pakistan Acting 2007 | Succeeded by Rana Bhagwandas Acting | |