Justice Qazi Faez Isa was officially sworn in as the 29th Chief Justice of Pakistan on Sunday in a historic ceremony took place here at Aiwan-i-Sadr.
The oath of office was administered by President Arif Alvi in the presence of dignitaries including Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar and Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir.
All judges of the apex court were also in attendance, making this a significant and momentous occasion.
Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir’s presence at the swearing-in ceremony underscored the importance of this event.
Additionally, several esteemed top court judges, including Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, and Justice Yayha Afridi, graced the ceremony with their presence.
Notably, former Chief Justices Iftikhar Chaudhry and Tassaduq Jillani also attended, adding to the solemnity of the occasion.
The ceremony commenced with the recitation of the Holy Quran, followed by the formal announcement of Justice Isa’s appointment. President Arif Alvi then administered the oath of office to Justice Isa, with his wife, Sarina Isa, proudly standing by his side.
Justice Isa’s tenure as the Chief Justice of Pakistan will be relatively brief, as he is set to retire from this esteemed position on October 25, 2024. His journey in the top judiciary began when he took the oath as an apex court judge on September 5, 2014. However, despite his seniority as a puisne judge, he had not been assigned any constitutional cases for the past three years due to a presidential reference filed against him in 2019.
Born on October 26, 1959, in Quetta, Justice Isa carries a distinguished lineage, with his father, the late Qazi Mohammad Isa, being a prominent figure in the Pakistan Movement and a close associate of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Justice Isa’s educational journey took him from Quetta to London, as he pursued O and A levels at the Karachi Grammar School and later completed the bar professional examination at the Inns of Court School of Law.
His career in the legal field spanned an impressive 27 years before he was appointed as a judge in the Balochistan High Court and subsequently the Supreme Court. Notably, he refrained from appearing before judges who took oaths under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) during the Pervez Musharraf era, a principled stand that exemplifies his commitment to the rule of law.
In recent months, Justice Isa had limited his involvement to chamber work as a form of protest due to disagreements with the chief justice regarding suo motu powers.
In March of this year, Justice Isa, along with Justice Qazi Ameenuddin, issued a significant ruling suspending the hearing of all cases under Article 184(3) until the apex court established rules pertaining to the SC’s Practice and Procedure Act.
Justice Isa’s rich background includes contributions to Pakistan’s leading English news publications on various topics, such as the Constitution, law, Islam, and the environment. He also co-authored a book, ‘Mass Media Laws and Regulations in Pakistan,’ in 1997 and authored the report ‘Balochistan: Case and Demand,’ published by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) in 2007.
With a career spanning 45 years in the legal field, Justice Isa’s appointment as the Chief Justice of Pakistan marks a significant chapter in the country’s judiciary, and his dedication to justice and the rule of law is anticipated to leave a lasting legacy. The full court is set to hear challenges to laws limiting the chief justice’s powers tomorrow, underlining the importance of the issues at hand.
