Incoming CJ Jamali belongs to respected family

LAHORE: Pakistan’s 24th Chief Justice, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, hails from the family of Hazrat Shaikh Qutub Jamal-ud-Din Ahmed Hansvi (1187-1260), the disciple of one of the founding fathers of Chishti Sufi order, Khwaja Fariduddin Masud Ganjshakar (1173-1266).
While Baba Farid’s distinguished family lineage is traced back to the second Caliph Hazrat Umar (RA), his spiritual chain is linked through his teacher Hazrat Qutubud Din Bakhtiar Kaki (1173-1235) to Hazrat Khawaja Moinud Din Chishti Ajemeri (1141-1236), both of whom had gained proximity to their Creator through renunciation of the world and service to humanity.
While Baba Farid’s most famous disciple was Hazrat Shaikh Khawaja Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Aulia (1238-1325), Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali’s ancestor Sheikh Jamal-ud-Din Ahmad was another eminent follower and devotee of the great saint from Pakpattan.
Sheikh Jamal-ud-Din Ahmad is known to have owned numerous villages and extensive property at Hansi (city in Hisar district of India), but had devoted all his material wealth to the poor and needy of the time.
A peek through the lives and histories of great Muslim saints shows Baba Farid liked Sheikh Jamaluddin so much that he had travelled to Hansi to stay with Sheikh Jamaluddin for 12 years and had later nominated him as one of his key disciples.
Sheikh Jamaluddin was a direct descendant of Imam Abu Hanifa, the renowned Persian
jurist.
“Project Gutenberg,” an American initiative that has till date digitised and archived about 49,500 cultural works, states in one of its articles: “It is said that once Shiekh Bahaud Din Zakariya of Multan came to Baba Farid and stayed with him for some time. On his return, he wrote to Baba Sahib:
“Give me your disciple Jamal and have all mine and courtesy demands that request be not turned down.” Baba Farid is reported to have replied: “Exchange is permissible in goods material. But Jamal (which means beauty) is not

exchangeable.”
(References: “The inspired sayings of Hazrat Qutub Jamaluddin Ahmad Hansvi,” which was translated by: Sardar Ali Ahmad Khan and is available at the official website of the Supreme Court of Pakistan)
Research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” reveals that due to turn 64 on December 31 this year, Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali shares his birthday (December 31) with the incumbent Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (born December 31, 1935) and the great Muslim conqueror and the saviour of Sindh, Muhammad bin Qasim (December 31, 695).
By the way, December 31 is also important in the life of sitting Russian President Vladimir Putin because it was on this day in 1999 that he had first assumed charge as his country’s acting head of state, following the resignation of Boris Yeltsin.
Justice Jamali was appointed Senior Justice of the Supreme Court on August 17, 2015, or exactly 18 years after General Ziaul Haq’s plane crash of August 17, 1988. He was appointed a Supreme Court arbiter on August 3, 2009, which thus means that it took him 2,227 days exactly to finally head Pakistan’s Apex Court.
Before being elevated as judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Jamali served as Chief Justice of Sindh High Court between August 27, 2008 and August 2, 2009, which means a stint of 340 days.
Justice Jamali was nominated as judge of the Sindh High Court on May 31, 1998 or just three days after Pakistan had flashed headlines globally by entering the nuclear club with a bang. Justice Jamali’s wife is justice at the Sindh High Court and their two sons are advocate.