Chief Justice of Pakistan

File:Supreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad by Usman Ghani.jpg

Supreme Court of Pakistan

The chief justice of Pakistan (initials as CJP; Template:Langx, Munsif-e-Āzam Pākistān) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and is the highest-ranking officer of the Pakistani judiciary.<ref name="Intl Business Pubns USA">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref>

The Federal Court of Pakistan was established by Governor-General Jinnah's Order in February 1948. Until 1956, the chief justice and senior justices were known by the title of 'Federal Judge', and the Federal Court of Pakistan operated out of a wing of the Lahore High Court, despite the federal capital's location in Karachi. The enactment of Pakistan's first constitution in March 1956 redesigned it as the 'Supreme Court of Pakistan.' <ref name="Oxford University Press">Template:Cite book</ref>

The chief justice is the chief administrative officer of the country's court system and the highest judicial officer, ranking immediately above the chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court. He is responsible for supervising federal judicial policies, and conducting judicial business in the Supreme Court.<ref>Article 176 in The Judicature Chapter 2 of Part VII of the Constitution of Pakistan</ref><ref>Article 175A in Chapter 1: The Courts. Part VII: The Judicature of the Constitution of Pakistan</ref>

Nomination for the appointment of the chief justice is made by the prime minister of Pakistan, and final appointments are confirmed by the president of Pakistan.<ref>Article 175A(12)-175A(13) Chapter 1: The Courts. Part VII: The Judicature of the Constitution of Pakistan</ref><ref name="Supreme Court of Pakistan Press">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Chief Justice of Pakistan is recommended by Special Parliamentary Committee consisting of 8 members of National Assembly and 4 members of Senate.He is selected by amongst 3 senior most justices of Supreme Court by two third majiority of total membership of Committee. Committee sends nomination of selected justice to Prime Minister and Prime Minister advises President of Pakistan to appoint that justice as Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Before 26th Amendment to the Constitution 2024. Senior most judge of Supreme Court was appointed as Chief Justice by President on advice of Prime Minister.

Presiding over the oral arguments before the court, the chief justice has significant agenda-setting power over meetings of the Supreme Court. In modern traditionTemplate:Clarify, the chief justice has the ceremonial duty of administering the oath of office of the president of Pakistan.<ref>Article 178 in the Chapter 2: The Supreme Court of Pakistan of Part VII: The Judicature of Constitution of Pakistan</ref>

The first chief justice was Sir Abdul Rashid.<ref name="Masood and masood press">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The current chief justice is Yahya Afridi, incumbent since 26 October 2024.

List of chief justices

#	Name	Period of office		Length of term (years, days)	Bar	Appointed by
1	Sir Mian Abdul Rashid	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court	Government of India Act 1935
2	Muhammad Munir	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court	Malik Ghulam Muhammad
3	Muhammad ShahabuddinTemplate:Small	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Madras High Court	Ayub Khan
4	A.R. Cornelius	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
5	S.A. Rahman	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
6	Fazal Akbar	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	East Pakistan High Court
7	Hamoodur RahmanTemplate:Small	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Calcutta High Court
8	Yaqub Ali	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court	Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry
9	Sheikh Anwarul Haq	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
10	Mohammad Haleem	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court	Zia-ul-Haq
11	Afzal Zullah	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court	Ghulam Ishaq Khan
12	Nasim Hasan Shah	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
13	Syed Sajjad Ali Shah	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court	Farooq Leghari
14	Ajmal Mian	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court	Wasim Sajjad
15	Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court	Rafiq Tarar
16	Irshad Hasan Khan	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
17	Bashir Jehangiri	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Peshawar High Court	Pervez Musharraf
18	Sheikh Riaz Ahmad	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
19	Nazim Hussain Siddiqui	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court
20	Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (1st)	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Balochistan High Court
21	Javaid Iqbal	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Balochistan High Court
22	Rana Bhagwandas	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court
23	Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (2nd)	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Balochistan High Court
24	A. H. Dogar	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court
25	Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (3rd)	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Balochistan High Court	Asif Ali Zardari
26	Tassaduq Hussain Jillani	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court	Mamnoon Hussain
27	Nasir-ul-Mulk	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Peshawar High Court
28	Jawwad S. Khawaja	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
29	Anwar Zaheer Jamali	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court
30	Mian Saqib Nisar	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
31	Asif Saeed Khan Khosa	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court	Arif Alvi<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
32	Gulzar Ahmed	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Sindh High Court
33	Umar Ata Bandial	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Template:Ayd	Lahore High Court
34	Qazi Faez Isa	Template:Dts		Template:Ayd	Balochistan High Court
35	Yahya Afridi	Template:Dts	Incumbent	Template:Ayd	Peshawar High Court	Asif Ali Zardari

• A Acting
• ± Recess appointment, later rejected by the Supreme Judicial Council. All decisions voided due to illegality of appointment.
• † Died in office

Timeline

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DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1949 till:30/12/2045 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:4 start:1949

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 id:act  value:red legend: Acting
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from: 08/06/1949 till: 29/06/1954 color:app text:"Sir Mian Abdul Rashid"
from: 30/06/1954 till: 02/05/1960 color:app text:"Muhammad Munir"
from: 03/05/1960 till: 12/05/1960 color:app text:"Muhammad Shahabuddin"
from: 13/05/1960 till: 29/02/1968 color:app text:"A. R. Cornelius"
from: 01/03/1968 till: 03/06/1968 color:app text:"S. A. Rahman"
from: 04/06/1968 till: 17/11/1968 color:app text:"Fazal Akbar"
from: 18/11/1968 till: 31/10/1975 color:app text:"Hamoodur Rahman"
from: 01/11/1975 till: 22/09/1977 color:app text:"Muhammad Yaqub Ali"
from: 23/09/1977 till: 25/03/1981 color:app text:"S. Anwarul Haq"
from: 26/03/1981 till: 31/12/1989 color:app text:"Mohammad Haleem"
from: 01/01/1990 till: 18/04/1993 color:app text:"Muhammad Afzal Zullah"
from: 19/04/1993 till: 14/04/1994 color:app text:"Nasim Hasan Shah"
from: 16/04/1994 till: 04/06/1994 color:act text:"Saad Saud Jan"
from: 05/06/1994 till: 02/12/1997 color:app text:"Sajjad Ali Shah"
from: 03/12/1997 till: 30/06/1999 color:app text:"Ajmal Mian"
from: 01/07/1999 till: 26/01/2000 color:app text:"Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui"
from: 27/01/2000 till: 06/01/2002 color:app text:"Irshad Hasan Khan"
from: 07/01/2002 till: 31/01/2002 color:app text:"Bashir Jehangiri"
from: 01/02/2002 till: 31/12/2003 color:app text:"Sheikh Riaz Ahmad"
from: 01/01/2004 till: 29/06/2005 color:app text:"Nazim Hussain Siddiqui"
from: 30/06/2005 till: 09/03/2007 color:app text:"Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry"
from: 10/03/2007 till: 24/03/2007 color:act text:"Javaid Iqbal"
from: 25/03/2007 till: 20/07/2007 color:act text:"Rana Bhagwandas"
from: 21/07/2007 till: 03/12/2007 color:app text:"Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry"
from: 04/12/2007 till: 21/03/2009 color:black text:"Abdul Hameed Dogar"
from: 21/03/2009 till: 11/12/2013 color:app text:"Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry"
from: 13/12/2013 till: 05/07/2014 color:app text:"Tassadduq Hussain Jillani"
from: 06/07/2014 till: 16/08/2015 color:app text:"Nasir-ul-Mulk"
from: 17/08/2015 till: 09/09/2015 color:app text:"Jawwad S. Khawaja"
from: 10/09/2015 till: 30/12/2016 color:app text:"Anwar Zaheer Jamali"
from: 31/12/2016 till: 17/01/2019 color:app text:"Mian Saqib Nisar"
from: 18/01/2019 till: 20/12/2019 color:app text:"Asif Saeed Khosa"
from: 21/12/2019 till: 01/02/2022 color:app text:"Gulzar Ahmed"
from: 02/02/2022 till: 16/09/2023 color:app text:"Umar Ata Bandial"
from: 17/09/2023 till: 25/10/2024 color:app text:"Qazi Faez Isa"
from: 26/10/2024 till: 25/10/2027 color:app text:"Yahya Afridi"

</timeline>

See also

• Supreme Court of Pakistan
• Pakistan Bar Council
• Punjab Bar Council
• Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan

External links

• Official Website of Supreme Court of Pakistan