ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi Wednesday appointed Justice Qazi Faez Isa as the next chief justice of Pakistan. The appointment of Justice Isa will be effective from September 17, 2023, with the retirement of Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial.

The incumbent chief justice will reach the age of superannuation on September 16, 2023, under Article 179 of the Constitution.

The president appointed the chief justice under Article 175A-3 of the Constitution. The president will take the oath of office from Justice Isa on September 17, 2023.

Justice Isa has been a justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan since 5 September 2014. He is the senior-most justice in the Supreme Court after Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial. Previously, he served as chief justice of the Balochistan High Court from 2009 to 2014.

Justice Isa was born in Quetta on October 26, 1959. He is the son of Qazi Muhammad Isa, a Pakistani independence movement activist who was a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and served as the president of Muslim League’s Balochistan chapter.

Justice Isa completed his primary and secondary education in Quetta. He did his “O” and “A” levels from Karachi Grammar School and went on to do BA (Honours) in Law, from London. He did his Bar professional examination from the Inns of Court School of Law, London, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Middle Temple, 1982).

Justice Isa enrolled as an advocate of the Balochistan High Court on 30 January 1985 and as an advocate Supreme Court on 21 March 1998.

He practiced law for over 27 years before all the high courts of Pakistan, the Federal Shariat Court, and the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and was a member of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, Sindh High Court Bar Association and a Life Member of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023