LAHORE: The newly appointed chief of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, retired justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, passed away on Wednesday.

The former Supreme Court judge was under treatment at Services Hospital for the last two weeks for age-related illness. He was also battling with cancer.

Later, his funeral prayers were offered at a mosque in Defence Phase-8.

Prominent among those who attended the funeral were former chief justices of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Tassadug Hussain Jillani, Mian Saqib Nisar, Sheikh Riaz Ahmed and Irshad Hassan and former chief justice of Lahore High Court Mamoon Rashid Sheikh, former SC judges Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Khalilur Rehman Ramday and Ijazul Ahsan, and former attorney general Irfan Qadir.

Among sitting LHC judges, Justice Ali Bagar Najafi and Justice Muhammad Raza Qureshi also attended the funeral after which he was laid to restin alocalgraveyard Justice Khokhar was elevated to the LHC as an additional judge in 1996. He was later elevated to the apex court. He was among those judges of the SC who had taken oath under the Nov 3 Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), promulgated by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007.

However, he resigned from the office in 2009 to avoid proceedings in light of the landmark July 31 judgement against the PCO and the state of emergency imposed by Gen Musharraf.

The federal government had recently appointed Justice Khokhar as new head of the missing persons` commission, replacing former judge Javed Iqbal.