ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday approved appointment of the Justice Yahya Afridi as the new Chief Justice of Pakistan. Justice Yahya Afridi will succeed Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, with his three-year term set to begin on October 26, as stated in a statement from Aiwan-e-Sadr on Wednesday.
The appointment follows the provisions of Articles 175A (3), 177, and 179 of the Constitution.
Justice Afridi was nominated by the Special Parliamentary Committee, a first-of-its-kind body tasked with recommending candidates for the Chief Justice position. The committee, composed of members from all political parties, secured a two-thirds majority for Afridi’s nomination, which was then approved by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
This appointment process stems from the 26th Constitutional Amendment, which mandates that the Chief Justice be selected from among the three most senior judges of the Supreme Court, requiring a two-thirds majority from the committee. However, the opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), did not participate in the committee’s deliberations, opposing the constitutional changes and criticizing them as a threat to judicial independence.
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The ruling coalition pushed the judicial reforms through Parliament, achieving a two-thirds majority in both the National Assembly and Senate. In response, PTI has rejected Justice Afridi’s appointment and announced plans to launch a protest movement against the decision.
Profile of Justice Yahya Afridi
Born on January 23, 1965, in Dera Ismail Khan, Justice Yahya Afridi received his early education at Aitchison College, Lahore, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Government College Lahore. He later obtained a Master’s in Economics from Punjab University, Lahore, and was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue an LLM at Jesus College, University of Cambridge.
Afridi began his legal career in Peshawar, where he also taught International Law, Labour Law, and Administrative Law at Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar. He was enrolled as an advocate of the High Court in 1990 and of the Supreme Court in 2004.
His career includes roles as Assistant Advocate General for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federal Counsel for the Government of Pakistan. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Peshawar High Court in 2010, confirmed as a permanent judge in 2012, and served as Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court from December 30, 2016. Afridi was elevated to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on June 28, 2018.
