ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has appointed Supreme Court judge Justice Yahya Afridi as the Chief justice of Pakistan for the next three years.

Justice Yahya Afridi, who was nominated by a Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC) on Tuesday night, is set to take oath as the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) on Saturday (October 26).

The president appointed Justice Yahya Afridi for three years from October 26, who will take over the reins from incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa. Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire as the top judge on Friday (October 25).

President Zardari appointed Justice Afridi as the CJP under clause 3 of Article 175A read with Articles 177 and 179 of the Constitution, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice on Wednesday.

Following the passage of the 26th Amendment, the top judge was to now be “appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior” Supreme Court judges.

Previously, the president used to appoint the “most senior judge of the Supreme Court” as the CJP, according to which senior most judge Mansoor Ali Shah was earlier set to assume the position.

Justice Afridi is the third judge on the SC seniority list (excluding the incumbent CJP), with Justice Munib Akhtar being the second most senior judge among those considered by the SPC.

The committee sent its recommendation for Yahya Afridi to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which was later approved by the president.

This method of appointing the country’s top judge has been adopted for the first time after the enactment of the contentious 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill, which suggests that the CJP will be “appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior judges of Supreme Court” with two-thirds majority.

As per 26th Constitutional Amend-ment, in case the first nominee declines, one judge from the remaining two shall be nominated. If they too decline, the job may be offered to the third judge. And in case all three refuse, the next in the seniority line after the top three can also be brought into contention.

Justice Afridi was born in Dera Ismail Khan on 23rd January 1965. He belongs to the Adam Khel section of the Afridi tribe located in the Kohat Frontier Region and is a resident of Village Babari Banda, district Kohat. He belongs to a family steeped in a tradition of public service.

He received his early education at Aitchison College, Lahore. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Government College Lahore and later obtained his Masters of Arts degree in Economics from Punjab University, Lahore.

After being awarded a Commonwealth Scholar-ship, Justice Afridi completed his LLM from Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. He was subsequently selected for a scholarship program for Young Commonwealth Lawyers at the Institute of Legal Studies in London.

He started his private practice in Peshawar and lectured at Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar where he taught International Law, Labour Law and Administrative Law.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the High Court in 1990 and as an advocate of the Supreme Court in 2004. He served as an Assistant Advocate General for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and as a Federal Counsel for the government of Pakistan while in practice.

Afridi was elevated to the Bench of the Peshawar High Court as Additional Judge in 2010 and was confirmed as a Judge of the Peshawar High Court on 15th March 2012.

Justice Afridi became the first judge from the Federally Administered Tribal Area to assume the office of the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court when he took oath on 30th December 2016. He served in that office until his elevation as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 28th June 2018.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024