On 22 October, Justice Yahya Afridi was chosen as the 30th Chief Justice of Pakistan(CJP) by the special parliamentary panel constituted following the 26^th Constitutional Amendment. He was chosen by the panel from a list of three Supreme Court judges and was the third senior-most among them. He is also the fourth senior most serving Supreme Court judge and was elected with a two-thirds majority. Following his nomination, his name has been sent to the prime minister for approval. If Justice Yahya accepts his nomination, he will be sworn in as the next CJP by President Asif Ali Zardari on 26 October and will remain in office for a three year term.

Finding the successor to Justice Isa: Why is there a controversy?
The decision was announced by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar after the special committee took the decision in an in-camera meeting. Despite efforts by the ruling coalition that PTI and SIC opposition members on the committee be present, the PTI boycotted the meeting. Earlier, the PTI had categorically stated that it would boycott the panel due to its longstanding opposition to the recently approved 26^th Constitutional Amendment and the panel being a by-product of this amendment. However, at the behest of the National Assembly Secretariat, the PTI had shared its list of members for the panel- Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Hamid Raza, and Barrister Syed Ali Zafar- none of whom participated. Due to the absence of PTI members, only nine members of the 12-member panel met online and voted. These included- Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Shaista Pervaiz, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Syed Naveed Qamar, Rana Ansar, Farooq H. Naek, Azam Nazeer Tarar and Kamran Murtaza. Out of the nine members, eight voted in favor of Justice Yahya Afridi, while only JUI-F leader Kamran Murtaza voted in support of the senior most judge, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, on the panel.

Who is Justice Yahya Afridi?
Justice Afridi was born in Dera Ismail Khan on 23 January 23, 1965 and hails from the Adam Khel clan of the Afridi tribe. If his appointment goes through, he will be the first CJP belonging to an ex-tribal area, the erstwhile Fata. Belonging to a family of members engaged in civil service, Justice Afridi completed his early education from Aitchison College and Government College, Lahore. Later, he secured his Post Graduation degree in Economics from Punjab University and went on to obtain his LLM from Jesus College at the University of Cambridge on a Commonwealth Scholarship. After interning in London at Fox & Gibbons, Solicitors, he returned to Pakistan and joined as an associate at Orr, Dignam & Co. in Karachi. Subsequently, he began his private practice at Peshawar and also had a teaching stint at the Khyber Law College. While in practice, he was enrolled as a high court advocate in 1990 and a Supreme Court lawyer in 2004. He also served as an assistant advocate general for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and as federal counsel for the federal government. Finally, his judicial career began in 2010 when he was made the additional judge of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and later confirmed as a PHC judge in 2012. In December 2016, he took oath as the chief justice of PHC and became the first chief justice of the PHC from the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata). He remained in office until he was elevated to the Supreme Court in June 2018.

As a Supreme Court judge, he has been involved in some of the high-profile cases. For instance, his was a dissenting judgment in the controversial reserved seats case. Additionally, he was also part of the nine-member larger bench that reviewed the presidential reference filed against the hanging of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. According to Dawn, Justice Afridi is “respected among the legal fraternity as a professional, straight forward and fair-minded judge who never indulges in arguments with lawyers.”

References
Malik Asad, “Justice Yahya Afridi picked to be next top judge,” Dawn, 23 October 2024
Malik Asad & Nasir Iqbal, “Justice Yahya Afridi will be first CJP hailing from ex-tribal area,” Dawn, 23 October 2024
“Justice Yahya Afridi — a profile,” The News International, 23 October 2024
Jehanzeb Abbasi, “Next Chief Justice of Pakistan: Who is Yahya Afridi?,” The Express Tribune, 22 October 2024