Following the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari has appointed Justice Yahya Afridi as the new chief justice of Pakistan.
Justice Yahya Afridi will be the 30th chief justice and will serve for three years, starting on October 26. This was announced in a statement from the President’s office on Wednesday morning. The statement also mentioned that this appointment follows specific rules in the Constitution, and Justice Afridi will take his oath on October 26.
About Justice Afridi
Justice Afridi was born on January 23, 1965, in Dera Ismail Khan. He comes from the Adam Khel tribe in the Kohat region and lives in Village Babari Banda, District Kohat. His family has a strong history of serving the public.
He started his education at Aitchison College in Lahore. He later earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Government College Lahore and a Master’s degree in Economics from Punjab University in Lahore.
With a Commonwealth Scholarship, Justice Afridi completed his LLM at Jesus College, University of Cambridge. He also participated in a scholarship program for Young Commonwealth Lawyers in London.
Justice 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 became a High Court lawyer in 1990 and a Supreme Court lawyer in 2004. He worked as an Assistant Advocate General for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and as Federal Counsel for the Government of Pakistan.
In 2010, he was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Peshawar High Court and confirmed as a Judge on March 15, 2012.
Justice Afridi made history by being the first judge from the Federally Administered Tribal Area to become Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, taking his oath on December 30, 2016. He served in this role until he became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on June 28, 2018.
