Islamabad (Web Desk): Justice Yahya Afridi took oath as 30th Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) on Saturday.
President Asif Ali Zardari administered the oath to the new CJP in a ceremony held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr (President House).
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Services Chiefs, Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Chairman Senate Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Governors, Chief Ministers, Ministers, judges of the Supreme Court (SC), high courts, former chief justices, law officers, office bearers of the lawyers’ bodies, lawyers, and media persons.
Justice Yahya Afridi was nominated by a special parliamentary committee as the next CJP among the three senior-most judges of the SC under the newly adopted 26th Amendment of the Constitution, and a summary in this regard was afterwards forwarded by the prime minister to the president, who accorded approval to the appointment of Justice Afridi as the 30th CJP.
Born in Dera Ismail Khan on January 23, 1965, Justice Yahya was enrolled as an advocate of the High Court in 1990 and as an advocate of the Supreme Court in 2004.
He also served as an Assistant Advocate General for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and as a Federal Counsel for the Government of Pakistan while in practice.
Justice Yahya Afridi was elevated to the Bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) as Additional Judge in 2010 and later confirmed as a Judge of the PHC on March 15, 2012.
Justice Afridi became the first judge from the Federally Administered Tribal Area to assume the office of the Chief Justice of the PHC when he took oath on December 30, 2016 and served in that office until his elevation as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on June 28, 2018.