Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, who was nominated as PML-N presidential candidate by Nawaz Sharif Monday, was Chief Justice of Pakistan during the 1999 military coup by General Pervez Musharraf. He defied the request given by Musharraf via the Law Minister and Legal Advisor Pirzada to take a new oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) saying that “taking oath under the PCO, in my opinion, will be a deviation from the oath I had taken to defend the constitution of 1973.” As a consequence of this he was forced to step down from his position, by the military dictator. The tenure time period was shortened due to his refusal to take the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) Oath, prescribed by General Musharraf to legitimize the LFO. After a long discussion with 4 Army generals sent to his residence by General Musharraf; namely, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Moinuddin Hayder (Federal Interior Minister), Lt. Gen. Ahsan-ul-Haq (Corps Commander), Lt. Gen. Mehmood (Director General ISI) and Brig. Javed. After Justice Siddiqui refused to take the Oath they left and on orders of the GHQ he and his family were placed under house arrest. Justice Saeeduzzaman received his school education at Lucknow and Dhaka; passed Matriculation fro m the Board of Secondary Education, Dhaka (1952); passed Intermediate Science (Engineering Group) from University of Dhaka (1954); passed B.A. from University of Karachi (1958); passed LL.B. from University of Karachi (1960). Justice Saeeduzzaman joined the Bar (February 1961); enrolled as Advocate of High Court of West Pakistan (November 1963); enrolled as Advocate of Supreme Court of Pakistan (November 1969); elected Joint Secretary, Karachi High Court Bar Association (1967); elected Member of Managing Committee of Karachi High Court Bar Association (1968-69); elected Honorary Secretary of High Court Bar Library (1977) and continued as such until elevated as Judge of Sindh High Court on 05-05-1980.He was appointed as Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court on 05-11-1990. Appointed as Judge, Supreme Court of Pakistan on 23-05-1992. Appointed as Chief Justice of Pakistan/Chairman Pakistan Law Commission from 1999 till December 2005.
