President Asif Ali Zardari has appointed Justice Yahya Afridi as the next chief justice of Pakistan, who will take over the reins from incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa.
Justice Afridi has been appointed for a fixed three-year term starting on October 26, according to a statement from the Aiwan-e-Sadr released Wednesday morning.
He will be Pakistan's 30th chief justice.
The appointment was made in accordance with Articles 175A(3), 177, and 179 of the Constitution, with Justice Afridi set to take the oath of office on October 26, the statement added.
The nomination of the top judge was made by the Special Parliamentary Committee on Tuesday night, constituted for the first time in the country’s history for the appointment of the CJP, with a two-thirds majority.
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.
The committee has participation from all the political parties in parliament, including senators and members of National Assembly on both the opposition and treasury benches.
However, the key opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), opted not to participate in the Special Parliamentary Committee meetings.
The ruling coalition last week successfully pushed through the highly contentious judicial reforms through the Parliament via a two-thirds majority with 225 and 65 votes in the lower and upper house, respectively.
The constitutional tweaks were also opposed by the PTI, which has pledged to revoke the legislation whenever it returned to power in the Centre, terming it an attack on the “independence” of judiciary.
The party has also announced rejected the nomination of Justice Afridi as the next CJP, vowing to launch a protest movement against the Special Parliamentary Committee’s decision.
