Who is Justice Yahya Afridi, the appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan?

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has approved the appointment of Justice Yahya Afridi as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

In a statement released by the President’s House on Wednesday morning, it was stated, “The President has appointed Justice Yahya Afridi as Chief Justice for a term of three years, starting from October 26, 2024.”

It should be noted that on Tuesday evening, a special parliamentary committee established for the selection of the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court nominated Justice Yahya Afridi, who is currently third in seniority in the Supreme Court, as the new Chief Justice of Pakistan.

According to Federal Minister for Law Azam Nazir Tarar, in the special parliamentary committee meeting held on Tuesday night, Justice Yahya Afridi was nominated as Chief Justice by a two-thirds majority, and a summary was sent to the Prime Minister for approval.

It is worth noting that the current Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, is retiring on October 25.

The special parliamentary committee meeting for the appointment of the new Chief Justice of Pakistan was held on Tuesday after the implementation of the 26th Constitutional Amendment. Representatives of PTI and Sunni Ittehad Council did not attend the meeting, boycotting the committee’s proceedings.

During the meeting, the Secretary of Law presented the names of three senior judges of the Supreme Court for consideration, which included Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, and Justice Yahya Afridi.

After a lengthy discussion in the closed-door session, the committee agreed on the name of Justice Yahya Afridi.

According to the 26th Constitutional Amendment, the summary of the name proposed by the special parliamentary committee was first sent to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who forwarded it for approval to President Asif Ali Zardari. The President has now signed the appointment order of the new Chief Justice.

Who is Justice Yahya Afridi?

Justice Yahya Afridi, who hails from Dera Ismail Khan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, is currently the third most senior judge in the Supreme Court at the time of his nomination as Chief Justice.

Justice Afridi completed his early education at Aitchison College, Lahore. He later obtained a BA from Government College Lahore and an MA in Economics from Punjab University, before pursuing a law degree from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

He began his legal practice in 1990 as a lawyer in the High Court and started practicing in the Supreme Court in 2004. During this time, he also served as Assistant Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Before his appointment as an additional judge of the Peshawar High Court in 2010, he was part of the law firm “Afridi, Shah, and Minallah,” whose other partners, Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, also became Supreme Court judges like Justice Afridi.

In 2012, when Justice Afridi was appointed as a permanent judge of the Peshawar High Court, he severed ties with the law firm.

After serving for four years in the High Court, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court on December 30, 2016.

During his tenure, when a high treason case was being tried against former military president Pervez Musharraf, he briefly headed the special bench hearing the case, but later stepped down from the bench.

After six years in the Peshawar High Court, he was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court on June 28, 2018.

Justice Yahya Afridi rejected the petition filed by the current Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa in the presidential reference against him. However, he was recently among the four judges, along with Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who opposed the decision to allocate reserved seats to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

At present, Justice Yahya Afridi is 59 years old, and upon his appointment as Chief Justice, he will have to retire three years before reaching the prescribed retirement age.

This is due to the 26th Constitutional Amendment, which states that the appointment of the country’s Chief Justice will be for a term of three years, and after completing this term, the Chief Justice will be considered retired, even if they have not reached the age of 65.

For the first time in history, a Chief Justice has been selected through a parliamentary committee.

For the first time in Pakistan’s history, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has been selected through a parliamentary committee.

Previously, based on the decision in the Al-Jehad Trust case in the recent history of the Supreme Court, the most senior judge would become the Chief Justice.

Following the approval of the 26th Constitutional Amendment, a parliamentary committee was formed to handle the appointment of the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice, with representatives from both the government and the opposition.

Before this amendment, the parliamentary committee established under Article 175A of the Constitution for the appointment of judges was led by Defense Minister Khawaja Asif. However, that committee functioned more as a rubber stamp.

The special 12-member parliamentary committee included representatives from the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), such as Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Azam Nazir Tarar, and Shaista Pervaiz Malik. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was represented by Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Syed Naveed Qamar, and Senator Farooq H. Naek.

Other members included Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) Senator Kamran Murtaza, MQM’s Rana Ansar, PTI’s Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, and Barrister Ali Zafar, as well as Hamid Raza from the Sunni Ittehad Council.

Although PTI nominated its representatives for the committee, Barrister Gohar refused to participate in the selection process or attend the parliamentary committee meeting.