ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court judge Yahya Afridi on Saturday took oath as the 30th chief justice of Pakistan at a ceremony held at the President House in Islamabad.
Chief Justice Afridi was nominated for the top judicial post by a 12-member parliamentary committee that was empowered to make the appointment under the recently passed 26th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari administered oath to the new chief justice at the ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials as well as former and serving judges of the Supreme Court.
“I, Justice Yahya Afridi, do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan, that I, as chief justice of Pakistan, I will discharge my duties, and perform my functions, honestly to the best of my ability and faithfully in accordance with the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the law,” Chief Justice Afridi said as he took the oath at the televised ceremony.
“I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions, that I will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and that, in all circumstances, I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will. May Allah Almighty help and guide me, Ameen.”
Chief Justice Afridi replaces Qazi Faez Isa who retired on Friday after serving on the post for more than a year.
Born in Dera Ismail Khan on Jan 23, 1965, Chief Justice Afridi attended Aitchison College and Government College, Lahore and later acquired a Master of Arts degree in Economics from Punjab University. He completed his LLM from Jesus College at the University of Cambridge.
Chief Justice Afridi was elevated to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) as an additional judge in 2010 and was confirmed as a PHC judge on March 15, 2012.
On Dec 30, 2016, he became the first judge from Pakistan’s erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to assume the office of the PHC chief justice. He served in that office until his elevation to the Supreme Court on June 28, 2018.
Justice Yahya Afridi takes oath as 30th chief justice of Pakistan
https://arab.news/6899e
Justice Yahya Afridi takes oath as 30th chief justice of Pakistan
- He was nominated by a 12-member parliamentary panel that was empowered to make the appointment under the recently passed 26th constitutional amendment
- President Asif Ali Zardari administered oath to the new chief justice at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials in Islamabad
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
