President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday approved the notification of Justice Yahya Afridi as the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) following the retirement of incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa on Oct. 25.
In a statement, the President’s Office said Justice Afridi was appointed for a three-year term commencing from Oct. 26 in accordance with Articles 175A(3), 177, and 179 of the Constitution.
A day earlier, Justice Afridi was nominated for the next CJP by a Special Parliamentary Committee formed on the basis of the 26th constitutional amendment. The 12-member committee—boycotted by three lawmakers of the PTI—included senators and MNAs of the PMLN, PPP, JUIF, and MQM-P and required a two-thirds majority for the appointment. Reportedly, the lone lawmaker of the JUIF on the committee opposed the nomination, while the 4 lawmakers of the PMLN, three of the PPP, and one of the MQM-P supported it.
The recommendation was subsequently forwarded to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who passed it onto the president for final assent.
Justice Afridi becomes the first CJP appointed to the Supreme Court following the enactment of the 26th constitutional amendment, which requires the top judge to be appointed from a panel of three senior-most judges by the special parliamentary committee.
The PTI and various lawyers’ bodies have already indicated they would protest the superseding of the seniority principle that prevailed in the Supreme Court.
A Profile of Justice Afridi
Born in Dera Ismail Khan on Jan. 23, 1965, Justice Afridi hails from the Afridi tribe of the Kohat Frontier Region and Village Babari Banda. He was educated at Aitchison College, Lahore from where he proceeded to Government College, Lahore, where he secured a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics. He subsequently obtained a Masters of Arts in Economics from Punjab University, Lahore.
Justice Afridi was then awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship, completing his LLM from Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. He then secured a scholarship for Young Commonwealth Lawyers at the Institute of Legal Studies in London.
Upon his return to Pakistan, Justice Afridi started a private practice in Peshawar and lectured at Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar where he taught International Law, Labor Law and Administrative Law.
In 1990, Justice Afridi was enrolled as an advocate of the High Court, and an advocate of the Supreme Court in 2004. While practicing, he served as an Assistant Advocate General for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Federal Counsel for the Government of Pakistan.
In 2010, the presumptive CJP was elevated to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) as Additional Judge and was confirmed as a judge of the Court on March 15, 2012. He took oath as Chief Justice of the PHC on Dec. 30, 2016 and was elevated to the Supreme Court on June 28, 2018.