Justice Maqbool Baqar: Undeterred by terror, unflinching in judicial transparency Profile

KARACHI: Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar, who has been nominated as the caretaker chief minister of the Sindh, enjoys a reputation of an excellent jurist and being a brave person who was once targeted by a terrorist outfit because of his judicial verdicts against terrorists. After his retirement in April 2022, he once even publicly pointed out severe flaws in the judicial affairs of the country.

Born on April 5, 1957, Justice Baqar began his legal career with his enrollment as an advocate in May 1981 after completing his LLB from the University of Karachi. He was appointed as an additional judge of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on August 26, 2002, and confirmed as a SHC judge the following year.

In September 2013, he was appointed as the chief justice of the SHC. His reputation as a judge led to his elevation to the Supreme Court on February 17, 2015, from where he retired in April 2022.

While he was serving at the SHC, Justice Baqar’s judgments in terrorism cases irked terrorist outfits, after which he was targeted by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists in a bomb explosion on June 26, 2013. He suffered injuries in the attack along with personnel of law enforcement agencies. He returned to work after months of rehabilitative surgery.

One of his notable judgments came in the case of the Baldia factory fire, which resulted in the largest compensation to the victims of the arson incident.

Justice (retd) Baqar has on multiple occasions highlighted flaws in the judiciary. Even in his speech at the farewell reference for him at the Supreme Court, he conceded, “I believe that despite our efforts, we have fallen short of expectations. Delays and pendency remain at an all-time high across all courts in the country. The reality ought to be disconcerting for all stakeholders. It is, therefore, imperative that we remove encroachments in the path of expeditious and inexpensive justice and build dams against unnecessary delays in adjudication with sincerity of commitment and a single-minded focus on fulfilling our constitutional role.”

After the retirement, he even publicly spoke about corruption in the judiciary. Participating in a session of the Karachi Literature Festival in February this year, he said corruption persisted in the judiciary and the induction of judges had not invariably been on merit as nepotism, favouritism and the sacrifice of merit factored in.

He remarked that judges who were involved in unscrupulous activities tended to please people with power and authority and never confronted or offended them, and if any complaint was filed against them, it was swept under the carpet.