Who is Judge Mohammad Bashir?

ISLAMABAD: Judge Muhammad Bashir was appointed to the Accountability Court in 2012 by the then PPP prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

His three-year term of service was to end in 2015. But the PMLN government came and the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif extended his term of service for another three years on the recommendation of the Islamabad High Court. In 2018, he continued to hold the same position due to another extension. In 2021, Imran Khan, as prime minister, gave him a three-year extension. But then these three prime ministers, as former prime ministers, had to appear before him, a unique and memorable event in the judicial history of the country.

Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan were also sentenced by him. He served nine years in the Accountability Court of Islamabad even after the extension of the term of office. Thus, the total duration of his duties in this court was 11 years.

Muhammad Bashir is the only judge in whose court, apart from former president Asif Ali Zardari, six former prime ministers -- Nawaz Sharif, Yusuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Shehbaz Sharif and Imran Khan -- also appeared.