Justice Yahya Afridi was sworn in as the 30th Chief Justice of Pakistan on Saturday, taking over from Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who retired the day before. The oath ceremony was held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, where President Asif Ali Zardari administered the oath. Justice Afridi will serve a fixed term of three years.
He is the first Chief Justice appointed under the new rules established by the 26th Constitutional Amendment. The event was attended by prominent figures, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir, and various judges and politicians, including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
Justice Afridi was born on January 23, 1965, in Dera Ismail Khan and is from the Adam Khel section of the Afridi tribe in the Kohat region. He comes from a family known for public service. His early education took place at Aitchison College in Lahore, and he later earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from Government College Lahore. He completed a Master’s in Economics from Punjab University and then received a Commonwealth Scholarship to study for an LLM at Jesus College, University of Cambridge. He also attended a Young Commonwealth Lawyers program in London.
Before becoming a judge, Afridi practiced law in Peshawar and taught International Law, Labour Law, and Administrative Law at Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar. He became an advocate of the High Court in 1990 and of the Supreme Court in 2004. He held positions as Assistant Advocate General for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and as Federal Counsel for the Government of Pakistan.
Afridi was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Peshawar High Court in 2010 and became a confirmed judge there on March 15, 2012. He made history as the first judge from the Federally Administered Tribal Area to become Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, taking the oath on December 30, 2016. He served in that role until he was elevated to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on June 28, 2018.