President Arif Alvi on Wednesday confirmed the appointment of Justice Qazi Faez Isa, a senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court, as the country’s next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP).
The appointment would come into from Sept. 17, a day after incumbent CJP Umar Ata Bandial retires on Sept. 16. A statement issued by the Presidency said the president was appointing the next CJP under Article 175 of the Constitution, adding he would administer oath to Justice Qazi Faez Isa on Sept. 17.
Born in Quetta on Oct. 26, 1959, Justice Isa is the son of the late Qazi Mohammad Isa of Pishin, a close associate of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. After completing his primary and secondary education in Quetta, Isa moved to Karachi to complete his ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels from the Karachi Grammar School before proceeding to London where he studied law, completing his Bar Professional Examination from the Inns of Court School Law, London.
Upon his return to Pakistan, Justice Isa enrolled as an advocate of the Balochistan High Court in 1985, and an advocate of the Supreme Court in March 1998. He took oath as a judge of the Supreme Court on Sept. 5, 2014.
During the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in May 2019, the president filed a reference against Justice Isa for allegedly acquiring three properties in London in his wife and children’s names and not disclosing them in his wealth returns. The senior judge contested the allegations, saying he was not a beneficial owner of the flats either directly or indirectly, noting his children were independent from him. The reference was declared invalid on June 19, 2020, but a majority of the judges on the 10-member bench ordered the Inland Revenue Department and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to seek explanations from his wife and children on the source of funding for the three properties.
Justice Isa won a case in 2021 that set aside the SC’s ruling, with the reference eventually quashed. However, the PTI government initiated a curative review that incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the immediate withdrawal of in March.
In recent months, Justice Isa has been portrayed in the media as a leading figure among judges of the Supreme Court seeking an end to the unfettered powers of the CJP, especially with regard to bench formation and suo motu notices. By contrast, incumbent CJP Bandial is perceived to be representing the status quo, surrounded by “like-minded” judges, most of whom were elevated to the Supreme Court against the principle of seniority.
However, Justice Isa has sought to negate this impression, saying that it was “factually incorrect and completely untrue” that he had “created” a separate group of judges within the superior judiciary.