Saeed Uz Zaman Siddiqui (Urdu: سعید الزمان صدیقی; 1 December 1939 – 11 January 2017) (pronunciation 'sa'eed -uz- zam'an'; alternatively / officiallySaiduzzaman Siddiqui) was a Pakistanijurist and legislator of great prominence who formerly served as the 15th Chief Justice of Pakistan and, prior to that, the 7th Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court.[1] At the time of his death, he was serving as the 31st Governor of Sindh.
Justice Siddiqui 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 January 2000, after his refusal to take the Oath under the PCO (Provisional Constitutional Order), which was an extra-constitutionally prescribed Oath for the Judges by the military regime of Pervez Musharraf. Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui received a letter of commendation from the Judiciary of the United Kingdom and was inducted in the roles of Judges of eminence by the British Judiciary for his stand in the cause of the independence of Pakistan's Judiciary, his stand was later glorified by the lawyers movement in Pakistan which helped Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary's restoration.
Career
Joining the Bar and Sindh High Court
Justice Saeeduzzaman joined the Bar in February 1961. He enrolled as Advocate of High Court of West Pakistan in November 1963, and enrolled as Advocate of Supreme Court of Pakistan in November 1969). He was elected Joint Secretary of Karachi High Court Bar Association in 1967. He was elected Member of Managing Committee of Karachi High Court Bar Association for the year 1968–69. In 1977, he was elected Honorary Secretary of High Court Bar Library and continued as such until begin elevated as a Judge of Sindh High Court on 5 May 1980. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court on 5 November 1990 and as Judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan on 23 May 1992.
As a consequence of this, he was forced to step down from his position by the military regime. His tenure time period was shortened due to his refusal to take the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) Oath, prescribed by General Pervez Musharraf to legitimize the Legal Framework Order, 2002. After a long discussion with the four Army generals sent to his residence by General Musharraf; namely, Lieutenant-General (Retired) Moinuddin Haider, who was Interior Minister, then-Lieutenant-General Ehsan ul Haq, Core-commander of the XI Corps, Lieutenant-General (retired) Mahmud Ahmed, then-Director General of the ISI and Brigadier-General (retired) Javed Ashraf Bajwa; Chief Justice Siddiqui refused to take the Oath after which the Generals left. On the orders of GHQ he, along with his family were put into house arrest.
On 9 November 2016, Nawaz Sharif contacted Justice Siddiqui and asked him to accept the position of the Governor, in the wake of event which followed the dismissal of Dr. Ishratul Ibad Khan. Justice Siddiqui was sworn in as the 31st Governor of Sindh on 11 November 2016. He died in office exactly two months later.
Appointed as Member of 3-men Contact Group, by Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Conference to investigate the plight of Muslim minority in Bulgaria in May 1986. He presented the first report of the group to the 17th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers held at Amman, Jordan, in March 1988, a second report to the 18th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers at Riyadh in March 1989, and the third report to the 19th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers at Cairo in July 1990.
Also presented a preliminary report on the plight of Muslim minority in Bulgaria in the Extraordinary Session of Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in New York in October 1989. Attended the 17th, 18th, 19th and the Extraordinary Session of Islamic Conferences of Foreign Ministers in Amman, Riyadh, Cairo and New York on special invitation of Secretary-General of Organization of Islamic Conference.
He was the Chairman of numerous organizations, some of which are The Council for Foreign Relations Economic Affairs and Law and President of the Poor Patient's Society of Pakistan. He was the Chairman of the World Bank supported Organization for Alternative Dispute Resolution (Pakistan).
He was also the nominee judge for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, from Pakistan.
On 25 August 2008, Nawaz Sharif announced that Justice Siddiqui would be Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Jamaat-i-Islami's joint candidate to replace Pervez Musharraf as President of Pakistan, he also received popular support from the Baloch Nationalist parties, although he had never joined any political party even after being approached by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan in 2007 and again in 2010. He chose to remain a nonpartisan individual. His name has been suggested by JUI and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf for the Prime Minister candidate when the interim government comes into power after March 2013.
On 9 November 2016, Mamnoon Hussain in consultation with Nawaz Sharif appointed him as the Governor of Sindh province.
Illness and death
Siddiqui contracted pneumonia and was hospitalised in early November 2016. He returned to the Governor House on 11 December 2016 and died on 11 January 2017 as a serving governor when he contracted another pneumonia on his healthy right lung. His state funeral was organised in the Governor House, making him the second person in the history of the country to receive a state funeral after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. He was 77.[7][8][9]
In 2018, Siddiqui was posthumously awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz - Pakistan's third highest civilian honour - by President Mamnoon Hussain.[10]