President Asif Ali Zardari has appointed Justice Yahya Afridi as the next Chief Justice of Pakistan, set to succeed the current CJP, Justice Qazi Faez Isa. Justice Afridi will begin his three-year term on October 26, as per a statement released by the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Wednesday. He will be the 30th Chief Justice of Pakistan.
The appointment, made in accordance with Articles 175A(3), 177, and 179 of the Constitution, was endorsed by the Special Parliamentary Committee, marking the first time this procedure has been used to appoint a Chief Justice. The committee, formed after the enactment of the 26th Constitutional Amendment, selected Justice Afridi from the three most senior Supreme Court judges by a two-thirds majority. The recommendation was then approved by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and forwarded to the president.
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The 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill, which altered the appointment process of the CJP, was passed by Parliament with 225 votes in the National Assembly and 65 votes in the Senate. The amendment faced opposition from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which boycotted the committee’s meetings and has vowed to challenge both the amendment and Justice Afridi’s appointment, claiming it compromises judicial independence.
Born on January 23, 1965, in Dera Ismail Khan, Justice Yahya Afridi hails from the Afridi tribe. He completed his early education at Aitchison College, Lahore, earned his BA in Political Science and Economics from Government College Lahore, and obtained his MA in Economics from Punjab University. He later pursued an LLM at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, on a Commonwealth Scholarship.
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Justice Afridi began his legal career in private practice and lectured at Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar. He was enrolled as an advocate of the High Court in 1990 and the Supreme Court in 2004. His judicial career includes serving as an Assistant Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a Federal Counsel for Pakistan. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Peshawar High Court in 2010 and became the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court in 2016. He was elevated to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018.