Self-exiled journalist Ahmad Noorani has alleged that the newly appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi has “a long-standing hatred for Imran Khan.”
In a vlog, Noorani discussed the political situation of Pakistan, especially the recently passed 26th Amendment and the appointment of a new CJP.
“Justice Yahya Afridi has many qualities, but the most significant trait that brought him the appointment of CJP was his hatred for Imran Khan,” claimed the journalist.
Ahmad Noorani also claimed that Justice Yahya’s bias against Khan is long-standing, but the reasons remained unknown.
Justice Yahya Afridi, who was nominated by a Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC) last week, took oath as the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) on Saturday.
Following the passage of the 26th Amendment, the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) will now be “appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior” SC judges.
Previously, the president used to appoint the CJP based on the seniority principle, according to which Justice Mansoor Ali Shah would be the next CJP.
Hours after Yahya Afridi was sworn in as the 30th chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and lawmaker Sher Afzal Khan Marwat has praised him for his neutral role and for being balanced.
Speaking to media in Islamabad, Marwat said that he had appeared before Yahya Afridi for more than 20 years, and he was an “extremely balanced judge”.
“I offer my congratulations to Yahya Afridi for the CJP role, and PTI was not opposed to his appointment as CJP,” he said.
“Our only issue was that the principle of seniority should not be violated in the appointment of the apex court’s top judge,” Marwat said while clarifying his party’s concerns over the appointment of the third senior-most judge as the CJP instead of senior-most Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
Earlier in the day, Justice Yahya Afridi was sworn in as the new CJP following the retirement of Justice Qazi Faez Isa. Justice Afridi was nominated by a special parliamentary committee formed under the 26th Amendment.
The committee consisted of 12 members, including eight from the National Assembly and four from the Senate, who nominated Justice Afridi as the next CJP. After President Asif Ali Zardari’s assent, Yahya Afridi was officially appointed as the first CJP under new SC rules.
Chief Justice Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa apologised for reaching late at his farewell dinner ceremony on Thursday night, saying that he came late because “I went for a haircut.”
“I usually have a habit of arriving early, but Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan suggested that I should get a haircut before attending the event. When I went to get the haircut, a young man was getting a facial, which resulted in a delay,” Qazi Faez Isa stated while addressing the farewell dinner.
The farewell dinner was hosted by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) on Thursday night.
Qazi Faez Isa further remarked that he had been working since 1982 and used to take leaves for months, but it had been a while since he had taken off.
Meanwhile, during the full court reference to honour CJP Qazi Faez Isa today, the court witnessed his last laugh as the head of the Apex Court when Justice Yahya Afridi humorously narrated the expenses of the farewell lunch.
“Now to my commitment, sir, this is the formal announcement that the farewell lunch today is not at government expense; he is being cruel and imposed the entire expenses on me; however, I requested my brother judges to share the brunt,” Yahya Afridi claimed, and court attendees burst into laughter.
“He was adamant and stubborn and was in no mood to accept farewell lunch on government expenses; he agreed only when we committed the expenses,” Justice Yahya announced.
Qazi Faez Isa is retiring today, and Justice Yahya Afridi, third on the seniority list, will take the oath of Chief Justice of Pakistan on Saturday (tomorrow).
Justice Yahya Afridi, who was nominated by a Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC) last night, is set to take oath as the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) on Saturday.
Following the passage of the 26th Amendment, the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) will now be “appointed on the recommendation of the Special Parliamentary Committee from amongst the three most senior” SC judges.
Previously, the president used to appoint the CJP based on the seniority principle, according to which Justice Mansoor Ali Shah would be the next CJP.
Since the new CJP is here, let’s take a look at some of his famous cases.
Some important decisions of Justice Yahya Afridi
In 2018, Justice Yahya Afridi was the head of the special bench in the treason case against the dictator Pervez Musharraf. However, he recused after some time after Musharraf’s lawyer objected to his inclusion, saying Justice Afridi was former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s lawyer.
In 2020, Justice Yahya rejected Justice Qazi Faiz Isa’s plea against the infamous Presidential Reference against him, saying the fundamental rights of a sitting judge would remain eclipsed so far as their enforcement was not in consonance with the terms of his oath of office. However, he endorsed the quashment of reference by disposing of other petitions moved by a number of bar councils and bar associations.
In 2022, he supported the issuance of show cause notice to Imran Khan in the May 25 Long March case of Tehreek-e-Insaf when it was accused of allegedly flouting a May 25 order of the apex court that defined the limits for the party’s ‘Azadi March’ gathering in Islamabad and thereby committing contempt of court. A five-member SC bench, in a 4-1 split decision, instead sought a reply from Imran on the matter before deciding to issue him a notice.
In 2023, a five-judge bench, which included Justice Yahya, declared that the trial of civilians in the military courts was unconstitutional in May 9 cases.
In the Punjab/Khyber Pakhtunkhwa election case, the petitions were dismissed as pending in the High Court.
In April 2024, he also recused himself from the infamous six IHC judges’ letter to the Supreme Judicial Council case.
In the reserved seat case of SIC-PTI, he supported the position of Tehreek-e-Insaaf by giving a similar position as the other 8 judges on the bench but opposed it due to some other legal issues. And he also wrote his dissenting note in the decision related to the case.
Justice Yahya Afridi was also part of the 9-member larger bench of the Supreme Court on the presidential reference against the execution of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Justice Yahya Afridi declined to join the three-member judges committee of the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Ordinance 2024.
A claim regarding Justice Mansoor Ali Shah’s reaction to Justice Yahya Afridi’s appointment as the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), has taken the internet by storm.
Justice Shah, who was next in line to be the CJP on the basis of seniority, was on Tuesday sidelined for the appointment of Justice Yahya Afridi, as a Special Parliamentary Committee, formed under the 26th Amendment, nominated the latter instead.
The committee, with a two-thirds majority, referred Justice Afridi’s name to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who later forwarded it to President Asif Ali Zardari for a final nod.
With the Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar announcing the decision of the parliamentary committee last night, senior journalist Meher Bokhari shared on X (formerly Twitter) a claim regarding Justice Shah’s reaction to the news.
“Just spoke to a close family member of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah. He said, ‘I am fine and going off to sleep and need to go early to SC [sic],” she claimed
It wasn’t later when social media was flooded with commentary on Justice Shah’s reaction.
One user trolled Meher Bokhari and said, “It was quite a revelation indeed. I also talked to a family member of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, and he said, ‘I’ll wake up and brush my teeth.”
“Sanu ki paway lambi taan kay sawy ya choti,” another user posted.
Optimistically, one X user wrote, “Justice Mansoor Ali Shah’s commitment to his duty speaks volumes. Let’s hope his integrity remains intact amidst all the political pressure.”
Justice Yahya Afridi’s Early Life
Justice Yahya Afridi was born in Dera Ismail Khan on Jan 23, 1965. Justice Afridi belongs to the Adam Khel clan of the Afridi tribe and is a resident of Kohat’s Babari Banda village. He comes from a family steeped in the tradition of public service, as per Dawn News.
Justice Afridi attended Aitchison College and Government College, Lahore, for his schooling and undergraduate degree. He later secured an MA degree in Economics from Punjab University.
After being awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship, Justice Afridi completed his LLM from Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. He was subsequently selected for a scholarship programme for Young Commonwealth Lawyers at the Institute of Legal Studies in London.
He was enrolled as a high court advocate in 1990 and a Supreme Court lawyer in 2004. He served as an assistant advocate general for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and as federal counsel for the federal government while in practice.
Justice Afridi was elevated to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) as an additional judge in 2010, and confirmed as a PHC judge on March 15th, 2012.
He was elevated to the Supreme Court on June 29, 2018.
Justice Yahya Afridi will take oath as CJP on October 26.
A six-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a new plea seeking formation of a full bench to decide the fate of the case pertaining to military trials of civilians.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Ayesha A. Malik were part of the bench.
Senior Counsel Faisal Siddiqi had submitted the fresh plea on Monday at the behest of civil society members, asking that “all judges willing and available” be included in the bench.
The Supreme Court reserved its verdict after discussing the matter during the hearing with other petitioners.
During the hearing, Justice Naqvi said the law did not give permission to “pick and choose”, asking why the inquiry against civilians was not brought on record. Justice Bandial asked if Faisal Siddiqi was “hiding”, upon which he was told that the lawyer had stepped outside for some work and would be back soon.
The apex court has already once disposed of the government’s plea to formulate a full bench.
The reserved verdict will most likely be announced tomorrow.
Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Yahya Afridi of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) have taken notice of the procedure for scheduling hearings in the apex court, summoning Registrar Ishrat Ali to appear before them.
The court summoned the registrar to appear before the two Justices along with all records, stating that there is no “transparency” in his office.
The development came after Justice Faez Isa, the second senior most judge in the court, found his bench changed in the morning from what it was yesterday. The future Chief Justice said that the cases whose files he had read yesterday had been changed while the judge who was with him on the bench had been changed too.
“I am a judge of the Supreme Court, I have also been the Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court for five years. We want transparency, if the registrar transfers the case from one bench to another, how will there be transparency,” Justice Isa asked.
Faez Isa also said that it seems that a registrar is more powerful than a judge like him. “I cannot hear the cases dated 2010 because the registrar appoints the cases for hearing. Can I call the registrar and ask that put up such-and-such case before the bench?”
The honourable judge asked the registrar what is the policy of assigning cases. “On April 2, 2022, the court ordered the registrar to fix the procedure for fixing cases, there is no such thing as transparency in fixing cases in the registrar’s office.”
Ishrat Ali said that cases are set for hearing only with the approval of the Chief Justice of Pakistan. Justice Yahya Afridi then asked that Justice Hasan Rizvi was on the bench, why did the bench change. “What is the procedure for fixing cases?”
Former President of the Supreme Court Bar, Amanullah Kunrani said that people are tired of asking but our cases are not taken up.
Justice Faez Isa asked the registrar that why was Justice Yahya Afridi and his bench changed? “Changing the bench without informing raises suspicions in the public mind,” said Isa.
The Registrar said the Chief Justice’s staff officer verbally instructed that the roster must be changed. Justice Isa said he apologises that he cannot hear his cases today due to the sudden change of bench.
He also said that a judge’s oath and code of conduct require equal treatment. “Article 10A is included in the fundamental rights, which says that there must be legal reasons for changing the bench.”
“Arbitrary decision was made by making a bench of will, the dignity of the judiciary will be lower due to lack of transparency. Transparency requires that the case which was entered first should be heard first,” said Justice Isa.
