The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Sunday made it clear that Justice Babar Sattar was holding no citizenship of any other country than Pakistan.
Islamabad: Justice Babar Sattar holds only Pakistani nationality: IHC. According to the statement issued by the IHC, Justice Sattar’s children opted for Pakistani citizenship after he became a judge. The then chief justice was informed about Justice Sattar’s green card at the time of his appointment.
The statement said: “Justice Sattar’s mother had been running a school since 1992, where Justice Sattar’s legal firm was a school advisor and collected fees”.
He obtained permanent residency in the United States and worked there until 2005 when he returned to Pakistan and has been working here since then.
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The IHC said: “Justice Sattar has declared his assets and tax returns in both Pakistan and the United States.”
Babar Sattar serves as a Pakistani jurist and has held the position of Justice at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) since 30 December 2020.
Education
He is a graduate of Cadet College Hasan Abdal. Sattar, a Rhodes Scholar, pursued his Master of Laws (LL.M.) at Harvard Law School.
Career
Before joining the judiciary, he had a diverse background as a lawyer, law professor, and regular contributor to various platforms, including Medium, Dawn, The News International, Geo News, and The Friday Times.
He received the recommendation for the position of Additional Judge from the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), led by then Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed, on 3 December 2020.
The President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi, approved his appointment as an additional judge on 30 December 2020.
On 8 December 2021, the JCP endorsed his promotion to the permanent judge position at the IHC.
Cases
In 2019, he served as the advocate for Qazi Faez Isa before a full bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, handling a case where Isa contested a presidential reference filed against him in the Judicial Commission of Pakistan.
On 1 March 2022, in a legal matter, Sattar declared marriages under the age of 18 unlawful, issuing directives to reunite a 16-year-old girl with her mother in a case involving early marriage.
On 13 November 2022, he suspended an FIR against a citizen who posted tweets against then Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa, asserting that mere tweets cannot incite mutiny in the army.
On 17 August 2023, he ordered the release of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar, also deciding to indict the deputy commissioner, Irfan Nawaz Memon, and SSP Islamabad, Jamil Zafar, for not complying with previous orders in the same matter, leading to contempt of the court charges. He also stripped away the powers of arbitrary detention of a suspect, under section 3 of Maintenance of Public Order (3-MPO), from the deputy commissioner. In a hearing on 29 September 2023, Sattar rejected the unconditional apology of Memon, and asked him to prepare for his defense. The judge also chastised Memon for trying to approach him through friends and family. In another hearing on 12 December 2023, Sattar decided to proceed against Memon and others indicted on a day-to-day basis. He once again rejected the unconditional apologies rendered by Memon while remarking that contempt of court involves a “six-month sentence wherein you may also live in jail and see how those who you sent to jail live there.”
