Neither Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's past nor his demeanour provide any clue as to how a run-of-the-mill lawyer from Pakistan's arid and sparsely populated Baluchistan province could end up challenging the mightiest in the land and become a genuine hero of the people, embodying the hopes and aspirations of a troubled nation.
If Mr Chaudhry's story had been a fairy tale, it would be considered too incredible to be retold. But the enigmatic judge's emergence during the past two years from relative obscurity to an internationally recognised champion of judicial independence and democratic freedoms has taken place in the public arena, often in the streets and in the full glare of television cameras.
He officially assumes office today; he will take up the chief justice's chair in the Supreme Court in Islamabad on Monday for the third time, the finale of an amazing people's movement led by lawyers - and the result of a back-room deal involving Pakistan's top politicians, the army and the United States.
On the public stage, Mr Chaudhry hardly impresses. Bespectacled, slightly squint-eyed, with a walrus moustache, he is not much of an orator - he has addressed huge, admiring crowds by reading out from a prepared text in a somewhat reedy voice.
In court, he can be abrasive and intrusive, and was never well liked by lawyers. He is not known for his intellectual prowess, his judgments can be lengthy and dreary and he was accused of being obsessed with protocol, sometimes even pulling up officials in provinces he would visit for failing to provide a limousine befitting his status.
His rise in the judiciary during the past three decades was not just unremarkable but also, according to some critics, blemished.
