Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani jurist and politician, Died at 78

Saeed Uz Zaman Siddiqui was born on December 1, 1937, and died on January 11, 2017.

He was a Pakistani jurist and legislator of great prominence.

He formerly served as the Chief Justice of Pakistan at the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Siddiqui was the Chief Justice of Pakistan when the 1999 military coup d’état was staged by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf.

He was born in a middle-class educated Urdu-speaking family and received his school education at Lucknow, Hyderabad State of the British Indian Empire and also was educated at Dhaka, East-Pakistan.

He passed Matriculation from the Board of Secondary Education from Dhaka, East-Pakistan in 1952.

During 1954, He obtained internmediate in Engineering sciences from the University of Dacca.

He worked at the Physics Department, and taught undergraduate physics laboratory courses.

Then, he relocated to Karachi, West-Pakistan and attended Karachi University in 1954.

While in Karachi at the Karachi University, Siddiqui obtained B.A. in Philosophy and L.L.B from the University of Karachi in 1958.

In the year 1960, he started Legal practice at the High Court of Sind.

He was awarded honorary membership of the Judicial fraternity of Australia and Canada after the news of his resignation from the office of the Chief Justice was made public in Jan 2000, when he refused to take oath under the PCO (Provisional Constitutional Order).

He received a letter of commendation from the Judiciary of the United Kingdom and the United States Supreme Court for his stand in the cause of the Pakistan’s Judiciary.

Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui passed away at 78 years old.